00:00In this Shimla apartment, people are packing up and leaving.
00:03Suitcases, bedding, documents. Everything they can pick up before escaping their own homes.
00:08Homes here are no longer safe, they say.
00:14In Shimla's Talonti area, severe cracks have appeared in a six-story residential building,
00:18allegedly due to rock blasting during tunnel construction for a four-lane national highway.
00:23As a precaution, 15 families were asked to vacate their homes overnight,
00:27forcing them onto the streets in freezing temperatures.
00:41The impact is not limited to residential buildings. Cracks have also appeared on the Dhali-Sancholi
00:45bypass road, following which vehicular movement has been stopped. Even hotels nearby were evacuated,
00:50forcing tourists out late at night. The officer said most of the affected families have been
00:55accommodated, while a few chose to move in with friends or relatives. Local residents have
01:00blamed blasting and the use of heavy machinery during tunnel construction for the damage.
01:04Today we are not sure that we are making a road. We've been making a road for about two years.
01:09And we have been making a road for the past year and we have been making a road for the
01:13future. The residents claim warning signs appeared days ago, but no action was taken by the construction
01:30company or the administration.
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