Srinagar
Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary late evening on Saturday toured the city areas to take firsthand appraisal of response mechanism put in place to restore services affected in the wake of Thursday’s snowstorm in the district.
Senior officers of MED, PWD, PHE, SMC, PDD, UEED, Traffic and Health departments accompanied the DC and briefed him about the status of restoration works in the district.
The DC visited various parts of the city including several areas in the old city and inspected important installations of healthcare, mechanical engineering, power and water. He visited hospitals taking appraisal of patient-care and assessed their equipment to deal with the situation that arose out of Thursday’s snowfall.
Speaking on the occasion he said the administration has provided power generators with three months worth of fuel to major hospitals like Lal Ded and GB Pant. He asked the concerned medical superintendents to project urgent requirements that their hospitals and their patients from far-flung areas might have in these times.
He issued specific instructions to the officers from concerned departments to ensure quickest completion of snow-clearance and dewatering of all lanes and by-lanes. He also directed the Traffic authorities to ensure maximum deployment for effective handling of traffic situations and smooth traffic movement in the city.
The nodal officers for restoration efforts within their respective areas of jurisdiction were asked to monitor restoration efforts and ensure round-the-clock operations for earliest possible restoration of whichever and wherever services are yet to be restored.
Speaking on the occasion he said the snowfall had caused massive damages to infrastructure and services but that round-the-clock efforts of the administration have ensured earliest possible restoration.
He said fallen trees and tree branches hampered restoration efforts but unabated efforts of field workers have ensured restoration of most services. He said efforts are afoot and all still-unrestored services are expected to be restored soon.
Regarding power restoration it was informed that about 80 percent of power distribution network in Srinagar has been restored with 330 MW out of 420 MW being supplied as of Saturday evening. Entire network of the district is expected to be restored and made functional within another 24 hours.