Rajouri: Power infrastructure in Rajouri and Poonch districts has incurred heavy damages during the current spate of heavy rains and snowfall thus adding to the woes of people on account of water and electricity crisis.
Meanwhile, heavy snowfall cut off almost the entire Poonch district from Jammu province with most of the roads remaining closed.
Similarly Kotranka sub division and Khawas tehsil in Rajouri district remained cut off as over one dozen vital roads became out of bounds due to accumulation of snow amid the authorities claiming to have started road restoration work on war-footing.
As per reports available so far, around eighty percent areas in Poonch district and forty percent areas in Rajouri were reeling under darkness as a number of power receiving stations were lying closed due to faults in transmission lines and breakage of poles.
Locals from Kotranka sub division, Thannamandi sub division, Darhal tehsil, Khawas tehsil, Manjakote tehsil in Rajouri district complained of power outage in their areas. Similarly in Poonch district, areas of Surankote sub division, Mendhar sub division, Mandi tehsil and parts of Poonch tehsil were reeling under darkness.
Executive Engineer Power Development Department Rajouri (JPDCL), Narotam Kumar said, “Around forty percent area in the district was under darkness as there was large scale damage to power infrastructure including HT and LT line poles, transmission lines and transformers.”
“Efforts are going on to restore electricity but things will take time as replacement of damaged poles is a time taking process,” he said.
On the other hand, Executive Engineer of the department in Poonch district, Arshad Hussain told Greater Kashmir that around eighty percent areas in the district were under darkness and losses suffered in the field were quite higher than expected.
“Entire Mendhar sub division is in darkness due to a fault in the 33 KVA feeder line between Manjakote and Mendhar. Surankote sub division is also facing a similar situation due to a fault in the main transmission line. Ditto is the case with the areas of Mandi tehsil including Mandi, Loran and Saujiyan,” he said.
Scenario was dismal in case of road connectivity as well. Deputy SP Traffic Aftab Shah told Greater Kashmir that all three roads of Poonch district headquarters that connected it to Rajouri district were closed due to snowfall.
“Road from PoonchSurankote to Bhimber Gali via highway is blocked while road from Poonch Mendhar to Bhimber Gali highway point is also closed at Krishna Ghati and similarly road from Poonch Surankote to Thanamandi in Rajouri via DKG is closed for the last three days.” said Deputy SP Traffic, Aftab Shah.
He further said that presently Jammu-Rajouri-Poonch national highway was completely blocked between Bhimber Gali and Surankote.
Deputy SP further said that attempts were going on to restore Mendhar-BG road. “We are hopeful to restore it by Saturday evening and after this the highway will be cleared which however can take some time.”