COIMBATORE: Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan was caught in a severe traffic snarl for more than an hour on the ghat road in The Nilgiris following a mud slip on Sunday morning.

Vehicles queued up on the ghat road following a mud slip due to heavy overnight rains in Burliar around 7.30 am. Meanwhile, Union Minister Murugan, who was bound to Coimbatore from Coonoor in a car, was caught in the snarl. He then got out of his car and listened to the grievances of people and had tea in a shop.

On receiving information, the officials deployed machineries to remove the mud from the road stretch. After around one and a half hour the stretch was cleared and vehicle movement resumed to normalcy. As traffic was held up, all vehicles from Mettupalayam to Coonoor and those from Ooty to Mettupalayam were diverted through Kotagiri. Similarly, four trees were uprooted on the Kotagiri Road disrupting traffic. Meanwhile, the railways have extended suspension of NMR train services between Mettupalayam and Ooty till Wednesday in view of heavy rains.