The untimely snowfall that paralysed the normal life across Kashmir on November 7 has resulted in over Rs 100 Crore losses to the Kashmir’s power infrastructure as 700 transformers and over 6000 electric poles have witnessed intense damage.
The day-long heavy snowfall across Kashmir caused a huge damage to the region’s power infrastructure. Officials revealed that the overall losses calculated so far are up to the tune of over Rs 100 Crore.
“At least 690 local transformers that supply electricity to the residential areas have got damaged. The total number of transformers in Kashmir is 29000,” an official said. “We will have to spent Rs seven crore to repair all the damaged transformers. Similarly, 6000 electric poles have got damaged due to the snowfall. We will be spending Rs 10,000 for the repairmen of each pole. So the amount will touch Rs 6 crore.”
The official said that at majority of the places, high tension and low tension lines had fell down. “Those lines had to be erected again and the loss and damage component here was less,” he said. The official said that at some places receiving stations witnessed damage to their respective infrastructure’s which is being looked into. “The final details about the loss caused to the receiving stations is being ascertained,” he said. “So far total figure of loss that PDD has registered is over Rs 100 crore.”
Restoration of power supply across Kashmir, Chief Engineer Power Development Department (PDD) Kashmir, Hashmat Qazi said that while as electricity has been restored in South and Central Kashmir including Srinagar, it will take a few more days to restore the supply in northern districts. “In districts like Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipora, electricity has not been restored due to the damage caused to the infrastructure. In half of Budgam district, power supply has been restored while as work is on to restore the supply in remaining areas,” he said.
The CE PDD said that men are on job to ensure total restoration of power supply across north Kashmir districts. “The supply will be restored shortly in these districts,” he said.
Electricity supply in most parts of Kashmir remained affected after massive and untimely snowfall.
Though the administration said that restoration work was being carried out, the supply in the whole of the valley was badly affected, including many of the hospitals, which were using their own emergency measures.
“Our priority is to bring electricity to the hospitals and by tomorrow evening we should be able to restore electricity in whole of the city,” Hashmat Qazi, Chief Engineer, Power Development Department told
Regional Divisional Commissioner, Baseer Khan told “Electric lines are being rectified and electricity in most areas of Srinagar will be restored by evening.”
The electricity department is also taking help from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF ) teams to get the transmission lines rectified.
“I had to wash my face with a mug of water which I collected from the snowmelt from the roof. There is no electricity for the past two days in our area and we could not get the water supplied to the water tanks on the roof,” said , a resident of Rawalpora in Srinagar.
Life remained paralysed in the valley for the second day even as the weatherman has predicted a slight relief from Friday afternoon onwards.
Seven, including two army porters, died in snow related accidents across the valley since Thursday. The two army porters were killed after being caught in an avalanche at Farkiyan gali in Kupwara.
Hundreds of villages across the valley were cut off after the link roads got blocked by the snow. The remote areas like Gurez and Tanghdhar have remained totally cut off for the past two days.
Commuters had a tough time due to snow which accumulated on the roads. “In a one and a half km stretch of link road, 20 trees had fallen between Bagh-e-Mehtab and Rawalpora in Srinagar. I had a tough time reaching home,” said a resident of Badgam.
The Srinagar-Jammu national highway continued to remain blocked with hundreds of vehicles stuck on the roads.
Dismissing fears that the valley may face shortage in food and medical supplies, Baseer Khan said: “There is no dearth of essential supplies and stocks are for 6 months.”
Under the instructions of District Development Commissioner Shopian, Choudhary Mohammad Yasin the Additional District Development Commissioner Shopian Mohammad Saleem Malik, Assistant Commissioner Revenue Shopian Shahnawaz Ahmad visited various snow affected areas of Zainapora and Keller and issued directions to the concerned officers for prompt action to alleviate miseries of people due to heavy snowfall.
The ADDC and ACR sought details regarding restoration of power supply, clearance of snow from the roads, fuel, water supply, availability of essentials and medicines in areas effected due to heavy snowfall in the district.
The officers directed not to leave their stations without proper permission and were asked to conduct extensively of the areas of their jurisdiction to oversee public facilities.
The officers interacted with the local who raised several issues and grievances and issues pertaining to their orchards.
A Met department spokesperson told UNI that isolated very light rain and snow would occur at upper reaches while the skies will be cloudy during the next three days in Kashmir valley.
He said a fresh Western Disturbance (WD), which originated from the Arabian Sea and is approaching the region though Afghanistan and Pakistan, would hit the UTs of J&K and Lakdah on Friday. “Under the influence of this WD, Kashmir is expected to experience fresh spell of snow on Friday and Saturday,” he added.
After witnessing below normal night temperature, people woke up to a chilly Monday morning due to overcast conditions, coupled with ice cold winds in the summer capital, Srinagar. “The night temperature in Srinagar on Sunday settled at 0.4 degree, which about a degree below normal,” he said.
Some roofs and open fields were still covered under a thin blanket of snow in Srinagar, which received the season’s first snowfall on Thursday. People could be seen wearing jackets, sweaters and pheran (traditional Kashmiri cloak), to evade chilly weather conditions in the city. Pedestrians were finding it difficult to walk on the roads which were waterlogged due to melting of snow as the snow clearance operation was not undertaken in the interior areas.
Skies were cloudy in world famous ski resort of Gulmarg, which is covered under several feet of snow. The ski resort, about 55 km from here in north Kashmir, received over two feet of fresh snow since Wednesday night, resulting in dip in the night temperature.
Weather was also cloudy at world famous health resort of Pahalgam, about 100 km from here in south Kashmir, which also received moderate to heavy snowfall on Thursday.
