By Express News Service

BELAGAVI: A vast stretch of National Highway-4 connecting Pune to Bengaluru cracked open due to a landslide caused by incessant rain lashing the Karnataka-Maharashtra border on Monday night. Owing to the impact, the road broke into two, bringing the vehicular movement on this busy stretch to a grinding halt.

The damaged stretch is at Shiroli, near Kolhapur. According to sources, government authorities and officials of National Highways Authority of India have halted the movement of vehicles on both sides of the damaged portion. Given the extent of damage, sources said, it may take several hours to repair the road and allow the stranded vehicles to move.

Thousands of vehicles ply on this busy stretch of NH on a daily basis as it connects Belagavi to Pune via Kolhapur. For the past one week, Kolhapur has received the highest rainfall in the region. According to and Regional Meterological Centre, Mumbai, Kolhapur the district is expected to receive extreme to very heavy rainfall in the next four days.