Kashmir plains receive season’s first snowfall

Srinagar, Nov 03 : After higher reaches, the plains of the Valley also experienced season’s first snowfall on Saturday.

The incessant continued in the intervening night of Friday-Saturday while the plains witnessed season’s first snowfall today, bringing the temperature further down.
Earlier, the Met department had said that light rains or snowfall would occur at most parts of the Valley till November 3 evening.
The nightlong rains in the Valley have also submerged the most parts of Srinagar.
The higher reaches including the world famous tourist destinations, Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Pahalgam, and others experienced a heavy snowfall from Friday morning while as the plains received season’s first snowfall this afternoon.
Director MeT, Sonum Lotus told  that the weather conditions would improve from Sunday, saying that the light to moderate rains or snow may occur at higher reaches as well plains but there is a possibility of improvement in weather conditions from tomorrow.
He added that most parts of the Valley experienced season’s first snowfall, which they had already predicted.
The rains as well as snow have submerged the most parts of the Srinagar, thus leaving the pedestrians to suffer.
However, Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) in wake of heavy rain fall/snow fall had put its men and machinery on task to dewater the water logged areas in different parts of Srinagar city.
Dewatering exercise is personally being monitored by Commissioner SMC Peerzada Haffizullah that is being carried out in inundated areas including Hari Singh High Street,Lal Chowk, Batamaloo, Jehangir Chowk, Rajbagh and Jawahar Nagar, a statement issued to said.
Commissioner SMC along with the entire concerned staff has personally visited the dewatering stations and the inundated areas to take stock of situation.
He further passed on directions to keep control room fully functional so that general public can contact helpline ie 2474499 2470465 in case of reporting any submergence from their concerned areas.
In this context, Muzaffer Hussain Kakroo, Executive Engineer Mechanical City Drainage Division has been directed to ensure that all the 80 dewatering stations with 115 Mobile pumping units are fully functional along with the concerned staff to meet any eventuality.
He shall furnish the list of the staff along with their Mobile Nos deployed for operating the said equipments to Srinagar Municipal Corporation further stressed Commissioner SMC.
Besides, the Executive Engineer City Drainage Civil Division and Sewerage & Drainage Division has been directed to report to the said Control Room and ensure that all the Engineering staff along with other field staff remain present at their respective areas for avoiding any submergence problem.
Commissioner has also directed Ward Officers to furnish complete report regarding the snow clearance of roads, Lanes/By-Lanes, Water supply stations, Electricity supply stations, Ration Ghats, Hospitals and Sanitation after snow clearance within their respective ward jurisdictions on daily basis to the Nodal Officer 24×7 Snow Clearance Control Room SMC, who shall consolidate the same for onward submission to the divisional/district administration.
Meanwhile, the Untimely snowfall has brought damages to the fruit and orchards in North Kashmir.
Many orchardists called KNS saying their standing fruits have been damaged due to heavy snowfall besides causing extensive damages to their apple and other trees.
Meanwhile, the electricity has also got affected due to the rains and snow in Srinagar and other areas.
Besides, the rain and snowfall also resulted in the closure of roads here.
The Srinagar-Leh highway remained closed for third consecutive day today due to heavy snowfall at Zojilla pass.
Officials said that due to the accumulation of snow in tourist resort Sonamarg and Zojila Pass, the Srinagar-Leh highway was closed by the authorities for the vehicular movement.
Reports said that a large number of vehicles, including those carrying passengers, were stranded on both sides of the Zojila pass.
Moreover, the authorities also claimed to have rescued over 150 passengers from the historic Mughal road following its closure due to the heavy snowfall.
Meanwhile, the airlines here also decided to supend the operations in wake of the snowfall.
Flight operations were temporarily suspended at Srinagar airport due to bad weather conditions, officials told adding that Go Air has suspended the flight operations earlier and others also decided to suspend the operations.