Srinagar
The unexpected snowfall on Saturday plunged most of the parts of the Valley into darkness, leaving the people fuming in anger, as most f the areas including Srinagar city remained without electricity till this morning.
However, Chief Engineer PDD Kashmir, Hashmat Qazi, said that “heavy” snowfall in the Valley has resulted in trees with thick foliage coming down heavily on electrical lines, damaging most of the 33KV lines.
He said intermittent rainfall and now heavy snowfall led to frequent faults in the electrical system affecting supply in most parts of the uptown and civil line areas of Srinagar.
Qazi earlier said that two main trunk lines including Centaur and TRC coming from Cheshmashahi have come down after huge trees fell on them, adding that Karan Nagar and BB Shah lines are also under trees at various places but that restoration process is well underway.
The Chief Engineer said the department is doing all that is possible to restore all lines as soon as possible having pressed into service all its men and machinery
The snowfall earlier led to traffic jams in several parts of the city causing an inconvenience to the commuters and also disrupted power supply in the valley.
Earlier people said that there are not more than 3 inches of snow and people have been left of nature. People from almost every district of the valley complained about the failure of an electricity. “Few inches of snow has plunged entire Kashmir into darkness. This speaks volumes about the tall claims about improvement and infrastructure build up,” Nazir Ahmad, a resident of Lal Bazar Srinagar said.
The Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik earlier said that power supply in Kashmir Valley will be restored soon.
“I talked to power secretary. They are on the job. Soon it will be restored. At some places, trees have fallen on lines but that is being taken care of,” Governor said.
commenting over the issue, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Baseer Khan on Saturday evening said that machines have been deployed to clear snow from the roads while restoration of electricity in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley may take some time as damage is “huge”.