Shopian: After 4.5 feet of heavy snowfall in upper belts of district Shopian, authorities are struggling to restore road and power connectivity in many areas of the district.
Officials maintain that about 90 percent of priority-first roads and 80 per cent of priority-second roads have been cleared of snow by the Mechanical Engineering department. They, however, acknowledged that only 50 percent of the roads have been cleared in Sedow area where a heavy snow cutter machine was sent there, which according to officials takes time to reach.
Meanwhile, majot roads in Keller and Hirpora belts have been cleared of snow, but many priority-second roads are yet to be completed, officials said.
Mir Irfan, Assistant Executive Engineer at the Mechanical Engineering department in Shopian, told Kashmir Reader that there is 4.5 feet of snow in Hirpora after it was cleared on day one itself. He said that Sedow area is 50 percent thorough but it will take till Monday afternoon to finish the snow clearance work in the area.
Mir said that in areas below Shopian Tehsil headquarters, snow from almost all priority-first and second roads has been removed by the department.
For employees of the power development department, it was another tough day to restore the services amid deep piles of snow.
Many employees of the department were seen holding axes and cutters to clear branches and fallen trees from power lines.
The services were restored in Imamsahib, Trenz, Turkwangam, Wathoo, Shirmal, Keegam, Harmain and most of the low-lying areas but upper areas were still without electricity on the third consecutive day.
Similarly, drinking water services also were restored in most of the areas except those where supply lines had broken.
In Shopian town, men and machinery were deployed for the third consecutive day both by the Municipal Committee and the Roads and Buildings department and Mechanical Engineering department to remove snow from roads and streets.
Given the narrow condition of roads in the town, all the snow falling from rooftops of houses and structures situated near the roads accumulated on the roads, making the task of clearing snow all the more difficult. The authorities have to use lorries to carry snow from one place to another.

Raashid Hassan