Rain lashes Valley, snowfall in hilly areas
Gopal Sharma /Fayaz Bukhari
JAMMU/SRINAGAR, Mar 24: Over 2200 vehicles have been stranded in Srinagar, Ananatnag, Jammu and Udhampur areas as Jammu-Srinagar National Highway continued to remain closed on the third consecutive day today while rains lashed Kashmir and some parts of Jammu region.
Click here to watch video
Official sources said that there was heavy rain in Nashri, Ramban and Banihal areas during last night. With this, landslides blocked road at more than a dozen places. The mudslides created havoc in Dalwas, Mehar, Cafeteria Morh, Karol, Maroog, Digdol, Anokhi Fall, Mom Passi and several other areas.
The machines were pressed into service by the National Highway authorities in the morning. The senior officials were closely monitoring the restoration work. But despite working for more than 10 hours today, the highway could not be restored by the authorities.
A senior NHAI official said that the work at 2-3 problematic areas near Ramban and Marog was in progress and if the weather remained clear, the highway will be restored by tomorrow. He claimed that most of the land sliding areas have been cleared.
A Traffic police official said that in Jammu, Udhampur and Dhar road areas, over 1200 vehicles were stranded and more than 1000 on that side of the Pir Panchal in Kashmir. If the road is cleared tomorrow, the loaded vehicles destined for Kashmir will be cleared first.
Reports from Reasi said that Reasi –Mahore, Mahore –Chassana and Gulabgarh roads were also closed due to heavy rain since last evening. Mahore-Gool road was however, restored in the evening.
Meanwhile, rains continued to lash Kashmir while there was fresh snowfall in higher reaches of Valley today but weather improved later in the day with Weatherman forecasting dry weather till ending March.
The Meteorological Department forecast significant improvement in weather and said that it was unlikely that there would be any major rain or snowfall activity in the Valley till March 31.
Rains in the Valley and snowfall in higher reaches started on Sunday afternoon and continued for the fourth day today. In last 24 hours, Gulmarg received 6 inches of fresh snowfall.
Baramulla district recorded minimum temperature of minus 2.5 degree Celsius against minus 0.9 degree Celsius the previous night.
Srinagar received 30.9 mm of rainfall during the time while mercury settled at 4.6 degree Celsius, same as recorded the previous night. Qazigund received highest rainfall in Valley—47.2mm in the last 24 hours and recorded a low of 4.0 degree Celsius against 4.6 degree Celsius the previous night.
Mercury settled at 0.3 degree Celsius against 3.2 degree Celsius the earlier night at Pahalgam which also received 26.4mm of rain.
Kokernag recorded a low of 2.8 degree Celsius against previous night’s 3.6 degree Celsius while it received 32.1 mm of rain in last 24 hours.
minimum temperature settled at 1.6 degree Celsius in Kupwara against 3.6 degree Celsius the previous night. The north Kashmir district received rainfall of 34.8 mm during the time.
The incessant rains during the last four days have sub-merged several areas in Kashmir valley. Even a house and a shop were damaged in central Kashmir’s Budgam district.
The rain water also seeped into several houses at Ganai Mohalla in Devas Pora Magam Handwara as well as in some villages of Lolab and Qawardi in Kupwara district.
An old mud house, belonging to one Abdul Hameed Bhat son of Ghulam Ahmad Bhat, was completely damaged at Waterhail Budgam. There was no injury or loss of life reported in the incident. A readymade garment shop was also damaged in the Budgam district.
Amar Singh College in Srinagar has turned into pool following incessant rains with students and faculty finding it hard to reach respective class rooms. The students had to wade through the water to reach class rooms as no dewatering was done so far. Several other colleges like Women’s College, Bemina College and other schools also faced waterlogging problems.
Several areas in Srinagar were waterlogged including roads leading to problems for the people in commuting.
As the incessant rainfall for last four days threw life out of gear in the Valley, the Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) department said that there was no threat of floods in the Valley as the gauges are well below the alert mark.
“At Ram Munshi Bagh, the current gauge reading is 12 Ft and if it touches the 14Ft, flood spill channels will be opened which will recede the water level in Jhelum, and the gauge level in all water bodies is below normal,” an official said.
Amid heavy rains across Kashmir, a flood-like situation has arisen in Khushal Mohalla and Rather Mohalla of Neelipura area of North Kashmir’s Handwara due to which people are facing many issues.
The locals said that the heavy rains have increased the flow of water in the local canal, which has resulted in the closure of a local mosque and a school in the area.
They said that it is a flood-like situation on the banks of the canal and people are trapped in their homes.
They said that time and again, they have approached the concerned authorities with a request to build a bridge over the canal, but to no avail.
“No attention is being paid to the issues and due to the absence of the bridge the two areas are cut off and during the rains, the students aren’t even able to go to their schools,” said Latief Ahmad, a local.
He said that the administration is pushing them towards hardships as it is not giving due attention to the problems they face. “The administration gets active in situations like this, they don’t address it as it should be,” he said.
In the meantime, a bridge over Nallah Mawer at Batgung village in Handwara area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district was today damaged due to flash floods.
A portion of the bridge has been damaged with the result, traffic plying over it has been immediately halted.
Men and machinery have been immediately pressed into service at the spot. Also, few JCBs have been pressed to divert water to the other side to prevent further damage to the bridge.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
