Uncleared roads leave Bandipora's hilly villages cut off

Bandipora, Feb 4: Post snowfall, several of the uphill villages in north Kashmir's Bandipora district have been cut off from surface connectivity as the snow clearance machines have not reached there yet, locals said.

The villagers in Vewan and Chandaji told Greater Kashmir that after snowfall they have been cut off. The villagers said that the concerned departments have yet to reach them since the first heavy snow spell occurred.

Shabir Ahmad from Vewan village said that they have been reeling under darkness and are without a power supply.

Even though they had been taking benefits of solar energy to compensate for the unavailability of power, the villagers said they have been struggling in the absence of potable water for over a month too.

The water supply lines have been damaged, but no concerned officials from the PHE have been able to restore them, Ahmad complained.

"We had been consuming water from springs but ever since the snowfall occurred we are forced to melt snow and consume it for domestic use," Shabir said.

Some days ago when the road was closed following snowfall, Shabir had to shift his brother on the cot to the hospital after he fell and injured himself.

"The department can easily clear the road, but it is beyond our understanding why they aren't doing this," Ahmad added, angry that the doctors too were not available at the villager's health center aggravating their problems.

Similar concerns were reflected by the villagers of Chandaji who said that they have been struggling in the absence of power and road connectivity.

Showkat Ahmad said ever since snowfall the roads are closed and electricity is absent. "It has been four days since the roads in our village were closed," Showkat said. He also expressed concern over the lack of doctors and medical staff at their village's health center.

Meanwhile, the roads in Gurez are also closed, even though internal or those roads that are close to Dawar are being cleared. The Tulail-Dawar road remains closed cutting surface connectivity of several habitations with Dawar.

The Mechanical Engineering Department informed Greater Kashmir that all priority first roads, 401 kilometers in length were cleared while priority second roads 130 kilometers were cleared out of 231 kilometers.

They said roads to uphill villages like Pehkoot Yali, Amshareef to Buthoo, and Kothasari among others were being cleared. The official said the department was working almost round the clock to ensure all road connectivity was restored.

With fresh snowfall on Saturday, Knazalwan-Bagtore to Dawar road was again closed to traffic. Notably, the Bandipora-Gurez road had already closed and will open only after BRO starts the clearance operation which involves clearing snow from the toughest Razdan Top.