Shimla, Jan 20 (IANS): The most popular tourist destination of Himachal Pradesh, Manali Sunday saw the season's lowest temperature of 6.2 degrees Celsius below freezing point.

The temperatures remained below the freezing point in many places in the state, an official of the meteorological office here told IANS.

Keylong, headquarters of Lahaul and Spiti, was the coldest at a minimum temperature of minus 12.5 degrees Celsius.

Kalpa in Kinnaur district recorded a low of minus 10 degrees Celsius, while the temperature was 0.3 degrees Celsius in Shimla and 4.6 degrees in Dharamsala, the venue of the fifth and final ODI between India and England Jan 27.

Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation has started a bus service for Rohru and Chopal areas in Shimla district via Vikasnagar in Dehradun district in Uttarakhand.

Officials said vehicular traffic on Theog-Rohru road via Kharapathar, the shortest route, remained snapped on the third day as a thick blanket of snow covered the road.

For Rampur town and Kinnaur district from Shimla town, buses were plying via Dhami and Basantpur.

It would take another two to three days to restore traffic to upper Shimla towns, officials said.

The road connectivity on the Kullu-Manali highway too remained snapped near Patlikuhl, some 20 km before Manali.

District Tourism Officer Balbir Thakur said electricity in Manali town was restored Saturday evening and the traffic from Kullu to the town would be restored soon.

The Met department's forecast said a feeble western disturbance - storm systems originating in the Caspian Sea and moving across the Afghanistan-Pakistan region - would again be active Jan 23.