Chairman and Chief Executive Councillor, LAHDC, Kargil Feroz Ahmed Khan today reviewed the status of snow clearance operations on the vital road links in the district besides the availability of essentials to the people in the aftermath of the fresh snowfall.Executive Councillor for Works Nassir Hussain Munshi, Executive Councillor for Health Zakir Hussain, Executive Councillor for Zanskar Affairs Er Punchoq Tashi, Superintendent of Police Dr Vinod Kumar, Commanding Officer 67 BRTF Project Vijayak Col Rajiv Lohani, Additional Deputy Commissioner Sonam Chosjor, Councillor Tai Suru Aga Syed Abbass Razvi, Executive Engineers of R&B, PMGSY, PHE, Mechanical, officers of Municipal Committee besides other concerned officers were present in the meeting.During the course of the meeting, the CEC took brief from the officers about the status of snow clearance operations on the Kargil-Leh, Kargil-Drass, Kargil-Batalik, Sankoo-Parkachik as well as other major roads in the district.The officers of Vijayak informed the CEC that road clearance work on Kargil-Leh and Kargil-Drass road is in full swing while as clearance work on Kargil-Batalik road shall be started by tomorrow evening. They further informed the meeting that Kargil-Leh Road is expected to be thrown open for vehicular traffic by today evening while as effort is also on to clear the Kargil-Drass Road for traffic by tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the officers of Mechanical Division informed the meeting that road clearance work on the Sankoo-Parkachik Road is in progress from both ends and all out efforts are being made to clear the road for traffic at the earliest possible. The CEC instructed the officers to expedite the snow clearance work on this road by getting loaders on job and to ensure that the road is cleared for traffic by tomorrow evening.The officers were further directed to ensure the clearance of major roads on priority followed by the internal link roads as per the snow clearance roaster already issued in this regard. They were further directed to update the Hill Council on the status of progress achieved on the clearance work every evening.
The officers of MC informed the meeting that clearance of snow from all major and link roads in Kargil town is almost complete while as work on the clearance of various link roads at Shargole, Pashkum and Sodh is under progress which is expected to be completed soon.The CEC directed the Executive Engineer Mechanical Division Kargil to immediately commence snow clearance operations on Lankarchey Broq, Yagza Umba and Pangbar Roads on priority for which funds have already been advanced to Mechanical Division by PMGSY Kargil. He also directed the officers of PMGSY to clear snow from the roads under their jurisdiction including Silmoo and other road links.The officers were also instructed to engage private JCBs on approved rates to expedite the snow clearance works so as to ease the movement of people in far flung areas. Road clearance operations on the road stretch between Karpokhar and Parkachik, Choskore-Batambis, Kukshow, Dargo Roads and other major and link roads also came up for discussion and officers were instructed to take requisite steps accordingly.As regards to availability of power in the district, it was informed that power supply from Kargil-Leh Transmission Line is presently disrupted due to connection faults near Zojila between Gumri and Spangla due to the recent heavy snowfall. 3 to 4 megawatts of power is generated from Chutuk Hydel Project and 2.5 megawatts from DG sets.The CEC said that the issue with regard to the fault at Zojila shall be taken up with the Power Grid authorities at the earliest and effort would be made to restore power from the transmission line.In the meantime, the CEC instructed the officers of PDD to supply power to people as per the previous schedule.The CEC also impressed upon the officers concerned to lay immediate focus in the aftermath of snowfall like restoration of power supply, inter and intra district road connectivity, drinking water supply, traffic management, operationalization of heating system in hospitals, ensuring adequate stock of ration, LPG and kerosene for consumers at ration stores.He also directed the officers of SDRF to ensure round the clock monitoring of the situation so as to deal with any possible exigency.