Road connectivity to Kupwara upper reaches cut-off for 4th day

Kupwara, Mar 1: The upper reaches of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district remained cutoff from district headquarters on fourth consecutive day, thus leaving the people in agony. Karnah, Machil and Keran areas are still cut off leaving passengers stranded in these areas. Locals said that due to closure of the road, there has been a shortage of vegetables and other essential items in their areas.

People from Machil told Greater Kashmir that due to heavy snowfall in the area, normal life has come to a standstill. They said that with more than 4 feet of snow in the area, people were unable to move out because the interior roads were yet to be cleared of snow. “We are forced to shoulder patients to the nearest health centre which happens to be at Dudi,” they added.

Similarly a local from Keran told Greater Kashmir that people were suffering due to the closure of road. He said that the entire Keran was reeling under darkness due to lack of electricity. “The heavy snowfall in Keran has caused massive damage to the electricity infrastructure in the area. Although PDD officials were on job to restore electricity in the area, I think it will take them several days to restore the electricity,” he added.

The people from Karnah voiced the same concern, saying that the whole area was reeling under darkness due to lack of electricity in the area. “We are really suffering due to lack of electricity and most importantly the blockade of road gas added to our miseries,” Ashfaq Ahmad, a local from Karnah, told this correspondent on phone.A senior officer from Kupwara administration while talking to Greater Kashmir, said that efforts were on to clear snow from roads of all the upper reaches.

On being asked about the lack of vegetables and baby food in these areas, he said that since helicopter service has been kept available for these areas, the same can be despatched to these areas if the need arises. “As of now we have no reports of dearth of vegetables and baby food in these areas,” he added.

Meanwhile, Assistant Executive Engineer KPDCL Trehgam, Mohammad Shafi told Greater Kashmir that the electricity was restored in half of the areas in Keran and by Sunday the entire Keran will see power being restored. Regarding Karnah, he said that since there was an avalanche warning near Sadhna Top, and as a result men and machinery were unable to move towards that side to repair the damaged transmission infrastructure. “Once the avalanche warning is lifted, we will initiate repairs on the damaged transmission lines,” he said. He said that within a couple of days, electricity in Karnah will be restored.