shimla over 1000 tourists stranded in lahaulspiti and kinnaur districts of himachal pradesh were safely rescued and evacuated on thursdayfrom chandratal total 255 people including 167 tourists were rescued after five days while about 630 tourists in 175 vehicles were evacuated from spiti valley via sumdo and kinnaur towards their destinationone hundred and eighteen tourists were evacuated from sangla valley of kinnaur district the toughest rescue operation was in chandratal as the entire area situated at an altitude of 14100 feet was covered under the thick blanket of snow and it took four days to clear the snow from the road to reach out to the stranded peopleshabona roy from kolkata said that she was stuck in chandratal for the last few days after the landslide and snowshe thanked chief minister sukhvinder singh sukhu and therescue team for safely bringing them to batal after clearing the snowprateeek kothari from madhya pradesh said that the district administration and police officials kept them motivated while they were stranded due to which they safely returned from chandratal natata from ireland said that she was stuck in a camp at chandratal for the last five nights after the snowstorm and expressed her delight at being safely rescuedsukhu said that a rescue convoy had reached the chandratal on thursday early morning in subzero temperature to evacuate more than 250 tourists and the rescue operations was completed in the afternoon he said that tourists were taken towards kaza in four batches braving the chill of kunzum pass 4551 metresthe rescue operation at chandratal was closed after 255 tourists were evacuated from the site in 57 vehicles and they were brought to kaza in four batches he also lauded the efforts of horticulture minister jagat singh negi who led the rescue teams along with chief parliamentary secretary sanjay awasthi besides the kaza administration and the pwd authorities who despite challenging topography of mountains happened to reach the stranded at chandratal with three jcbs at 2 am on thursday sukhu said that it was not possible to land the air force choppers at chandratal due to unavailability of safe landing sites as a result of which rescue teams braved all these challengesthe rescue operation was launched at the wee hours and the first vehicle carrying the rescued persons had reached losar below kunzum pass at around 3 pm where arrangements for the food was made for the rescued people rescued people were brought to kaza town in 3 hrtc buses 10 tempo travellers and 17 other vehiclesawasthi said that the manner in which the local people have played a role in this rescue is commendable he said that jcb operator sukhdev has driven jcb continuously for 18 to 21 hours it is because of them that the whole road has been restored the officials of the spiti administration implemented the rescue in a very good manner he addedaccording to information received from sdpo office kaza about 175 vehicles and about 630 tourists have safely left spiti