Many Areas Reeling Under Darkness; Water Supply Affected
The continuous snowfall in the Valley since Wednesday evening disrupted the essential services—power, communication and water supply—throwing life out of gear at many places.
Due to the overnight snowfall, power transmission lines were snapped in many areas across the Valley. Power supply to south Kashmir, including Islamabad (Anantnag), Kulgam and Shopian was completely disrupted due to damage to Pampore-Wanpoh transmission line.
Officials said restoration of the transmission lines was hampered due to continuous snowfall during the day. Reports said power supply was also affected in many areas of north Kashmir including Pattan, Varmul and Rafiabad.
Officials said the problem was compounded due to technical snag in the Northern Grid, Uri and Dulhasti hydel projects. Till 1pm, the power availability in the Valley dropped to 150 MWs against the demand of over 1300 MWs. However, by evening, the officials claimed that the power availability increased to 600 MWs.
The disruption in power supply affected cellular services in the Valley. “Our 180 mobile towers and the Main Telecommunication Exchange at Lal Chowk were affected due to disruption in power supply in the morning. By afternoon, we restored the cellular services by putting the towers on generators,” the Senior General Manager BSNL, Mahesh Shukla, told Greater Kashmir.
Reports said water supply has also been disrupted in Varmul town, Rafiabad, Pattan, Delina since Wednesday evening. “We have to fetch water from streams as the water supply has been affected since yesterday,” said Ghulam Muhammad of Varmul town. Reports of shortage of potable water poured in from Kokernag and Bijbehara areas of south Kashmir.
However, the Chief Engineer PHE, Ghulam Rasool Zargar, said all the pump stations have been put on generators. “It is likely that due to minus temperature, the pipes might have got frozen in some areas. However, despite power failure, we have ensured smooth supply of water by pressing generators into service,” Zargar said.
The Commissioner/ Secretary, Power, Basharat Ahmad Dhar acknowledged disruption of power supply due to snowfall. “In the morning, the power availability was reduced to 150 MWs. The power supply to south Kashmir was snapped due to fault in Pampore-Wanpoh transmission line. Due to incessant rains, the power supply to the Valley from Northern Grid was also disrupted. Besides, the continuous snow caused technical snags in Uri and Dulhasti Power Projects,” Dhar said.
However, Dhar said, despite snowfall efforts were made to restore power supply. “By evening we managed to increase the power availability to 600 MWs. The low power supply due to damage of transmission lines led to high voltage which crashed systems at many receiving stations. At many places we had to deliberately snap the power supply to facilitate repairs of the damaged transmission lines. If weather improves, we are hopeful to restore the power supply to whole Valley at the earliest,” Dhar added.
However, people are not ready to buy PDD argument. “PDD has been resorting to unscheduled power cuts with the onset of winter. It has now got an excuse of snowfall to make the Valley reel under darkness,” said Ghulam Muhammad, a retired Government employee.
The continuous snowfall also resulted in disruption of traffic movement across various districts as people complained about Government’s failure to clear snow on the main and link roads.
Though administration acted promptly to activate men and machinery to clear main roads in the summer capital, people living in the outskirts alleged that administration had made no arrangement for clearing the snow from link roads.
GKs district correspondent from South Kashmir reported that intra-district vehicular movement got affected as people complained that authorities failed to clear snow.
The machinery was put in use early in morning in main town Islamabad (Anantnag) but there was no such arrangement in outskirts and peripheral villages, reports said.
Traffic movement got disrupted on different roads including Arwani-Frisal road and Bijbehara-Veeri road due to heavy snowfall.
Meanwhile, the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Asgar Samoon, has directed the PDD and PHE departments to ensure supplies to all the vital installations including hospitals so that patients do not suffer. The Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development Department has asked officers of essential services to remain available in view of snowfall. He also issued instructions for making the Central Snow Clearance Control Room fully operational to meet any eventuality in case bad weather continues.
Due to the overnight snowfall, power transmission lines were snapped in many areas across the Valley. Power supply to south Kashmir, including Islamabad (Anantnag), Kulgam and Shopian was completely disrupted due to damage to Pampore-Wanpoh transmission line.
Officials said restoration of the transmission lines was hampered due to continuous snowfall during the day. Reports said power supply was also affected in many areas of north Kashmir including Pattan, Varmul and Rafiabad.
Officials said the problem was compounded due to technical snag in the Northern Grid, Uri and Dulhasti hydel projects. Till 1pm, the power availability in the Valley dropped to 150 MWs against the demand of over 1300 MWs. However, by evening, the officials claimed that the power availability increased to 600 MWs.
The disruption in power supply affected cellular services in the Valley. “Our 180 mobile towers and the Main Telecommunication Exchange at Lal Chowk were affected due to disruption in power supply in the morning. By afternoon, we restored the cellular services by putting the towers on generators,” the Senior General Manager BSNL, Mahesh Shukla, told Greater Kashmir.
Reports said water supply has also been disrupted in Varmul town, Rafiabad, Pattan, Delina since Wednesday evening. “We have to fetch water from streams as the water supply has been affected since yesterday,” said Ghulam Muhammad of Varmul town. Reports of shortage of potable water poured in from Kokernag and Bijbehara areas of south Kashmir.
However, the Chief Engineer PHE, Ghulam Rasool Zargar, said all the pump stations have been put on generators. “It is likely that due to minus temperature, the pipes might have got frozen in some areas. However, despite power failure, we have ensured smooth supply of water by pressing generators into service,” Zargar said.
The Commissioner/ Secretary, Power, Basharat Ahmad Dhar acknowledged disruption of power supply due to snowfall. “In the morning, the power availability was reduced to 150 MWs. The power supply to south Kashmir was snapped due to fault in Pampore-Wanpoh transmission line. Due to incessant rains, the power supply to the Valley from Northern Grid was also disrupted. Besides, the continuous snow caused technical snags in Uri and Dulhasti Power Projects,” Dhar said.
However, Dhar said, despite snowfall efforts were made to restore power supply. “By evening we managed to increase the power availability to 600 MWs. The low power supply due to damage of transmission lines led to high voltage which crashed systems at many receiving stations. At many places we had to deliberately snap the power supply to facilitate repairs of the damaged transmission lines. If weather improves, we are hopeful to restore the power supply to whole Valley at the earliest,” Dhar added.
However, people are not ready to buy PDD argument. “PDD has been resorting to unscheduled power cuts with the onset of winter. It has now got an excuse of snowfall to make the Valley reel under darkness,” said Ghulam Muhammad, a retired Government employee.
The continuous snowfall also resulted in disruption of traffic movement across various districts as people complained about Government’s failure to clear snow on the main and link roads.
Though administration acted promptly to activate men and machinery to clear main roads in the summer capital, people living in the outskirts alleged that administration had made no arrangement for clearing the snow from link roads.
GKs district correspondent from South Kashmir reported that intra-district vehicular movement got affected as people complained that authorities failed to clear snow.
The machinery was put in use early in morning in main town Islamabad (Anantnag) but there was no such arrangement in outskirts and peripheral villages, reports said.
Traffic movement got disrupted on different roads including Arwani-Frisal road and Bijbehara-Veeri road due to heavy snowfall.
Meanwhile, the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Asgar Samoon, has directed the PDD and PHE departments to ensure supplies to all the vital installations including hospitals so that patients do not suffer. The Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development Department has asked officers of essential services to remain available in view of snowfall. He also issued instructions for making the Central Snow Clearance Control Room fully operational to meet any eventuality in case bad weather continues.
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