Srinagar: Heavy snowfall brought life to a standstill in the summer capital on Tuesday with people waking up to blocked roads, power disruption and water-logging.
Reports said that power disruption was reported in various areas of Srinagar city, including Downtown and Uptown localities. “We were left without power supply from the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, and power was not restored after passing of almost a day,” said a local from Hazratbal.
The locals from Downtown also said that many areas faced power disruptions following the snowfall.
Farooq Ahmad, Executive Engineer (Transmission) said that said all transmission lines, including over 260 feeders, were active by the end of the day.
“There is a fault in around four feeders, which is being fixed. We also had around six transformers damaged which were fixed on the same day,” he said.
The locals said that un-cleared snow led to hindrances in movement of public and private transport. They said that the snow and rainfall also triggered water-logging in Srinagar areas.
“These issues are common now during every downpour and particularly during snowfall. Everyone does not own a vehicle, and given that it was a working day, we had to attend the office, but there were very few cabs and buses which left the passengers stranded. The water-logging and un-cleared snow also led to traffic jams,” said Muzaffar Ahmad, an officer goer.
SMC commissioner Athar Aamir Khan said that they pressed all the men and machinery to clear snow from roads and to address the waterlogging issue.
“Snow was cleared from the majority of the roads and lanes. We pressed all new snow clearance machines into service. The lanes which are not motorable were cleared manually, and I overlooked the operations personally on the ground. We also made 90 dewatering pumps functional to clear the water-logging across Srinagar. We used both mobile and stationary dewatering pumps to address the issue,” Khan said, adding that essential roads leading to hospitals were cleared on a priority basis.
Meanwhile, officials from the District administration said that DC Srinagar visited various areas of the City and took stock of the snow clearance operations.
“The DC visited SMHS Hospital to inspect the snow clearance measures for hassle-free movement of ambulances apart from looking into power supply. He took a round of various units of the Hospital and inspected the Emergency unit, ICU, OPD, IPD and enquired about the patient care facilities available at the hospital,” they said
They also said that the DC also visited Power Grid Station Bemina and took stock of the power supply, where he was informed about the power scenario post-snowfall in Srinagar.
