Bandipora struggles for power supply, snow clearance

Bandipora, Feb 3: The north Kashmir's Bandipora district was draped in a fresh snow blanket on Saturday with plains witnessing light spells while the mountainous areas were buried in moderate snow.

The administration has been redressing people’s complaints and issues regarding post-snowfall clearance, electricity outages, water, other emergency services and basic amenities.

The situation was largely under control with the majority of the areas being connected via road links while the Power Development Department (PDD) was ensuring electricity was made available to the consumers in the shortest possible time.

Bandipora subdivision which witnessed moderate spells of snowfall suggested that few areas were reeling under darkness.

People from Bandipora towns Ajar, Plan, and villages like Gamroo and Halmatopra said that they were facing inconveniences regarding electric supply.

“Electricity has been snappy and some of the homes didn't receive electric supply for the last 3 days," Ubair Ahmad from Grat Mohalla in Bandipora said.

Locals said that the electricity was restored on Saturday after continuous requests to the concerned engineers.

The electric supply in Ajar was also snappy.

A local from Gamroo said that electricity in their areas had been off since the first spell of snow.

He said that they were concerned as their children needed regular use of nebulisers and faults in their transmission line were not fixed.

Executive Engineer PDD, Bandipora, Hafeez-ur-Rehman told Greater Kashmir that the field officials were continuously on the job and all feeders were up and running by Saturday evening.

The official said that 95 percent of electricity in the Bandipora division was restored.

However, he said that with continuous snowfall, the issue of outages might arise which was being addressed continuously.

Meanwhile, locals from a few uphill areas in Bandipora complained that the snow was not cleared from the roads and requested the concerned departments of R&B and Mechanical Engineering to deploy machinery as soon as possible.

Hilal Ahmad, an engineer with the Mechanical Engineering Department said that all priority roads in Bandipora were cleared and were connected to the district headquarters.

He said that some Priority-2 roads were being cleared in areas like Quil, Ketson, and Bhutoo.

Amjad said that for the overall length of 150 km of Priority-2 roads, nearly 50 km were cleared amid continuous snowfall.

The department officials involved in road clearance also had a narrow escape on Saturday when a snow clearance vehicle skidded off the road at Ketson.

“However, no one was injured in the accident,” officials said.

Meanwhile, areas in Gurez Valley were also being internally connected with snow clearance operations in the areas amidst continuous snowfall.