Roads made motorable within 24 hours of snowfall in Pahalgam

Pahalgam, Feb 23: Despite a recent heavy snowfall, the administration swiftly cleared all roads and lanes in the coveted tourist destination of Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

An official told Greater Kashmir that all the roads were made motorable within 24 hours.

“Despite a good snowfall that continued, though intermittently, for two days, we were able to quickly clear all the roads”, said the official.

He said that while the Mechanical Engineering Division cleared the roads, the snow from parking slots, lanes and by-lanes was removed by the Municipal Committee (MC) Pahalgam.

Suhail Malik, Executive Officer MC Pahalgam said that they pressed JCBs and tractors into service to clear the parking slots, lanes and by-lanes.

“The roads and thoroughfares in the area were cleared by R&B’s Mechanical Engineering Division”, he said. Malik said besides machinery, at least 120 men manually made all lanes and by-lanes accessible. “Both our men and machinery continued to work amidst snowfall”, he said. The area received up to 1 ft of snow during the recent snowfall, attracting hundreds of tourists, both domestic and foreign.

“The tourist inflow has also witnessed a significant increase following the snowfall”, said another official. He said that the clearance of roads well on time did not hamper the tourist activities in the area.