Infrastructure repair after snowfall in Kumaon under way

PITHORAGARH: Uttarakhand Additional Chief Secretary Rakesh Sharma has instructed officers of Pithoragarh district that all the roads closed due to snowfall in the district be opened within 72 hours as the state government is ready to provide all assistance to the district administration to rebuild infrastructure damaged due to the sudden snowfall.

Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, December 17

Uttarakhand Additional Chief Secretary Rakesh Sharma has instructed officers of Pithoragarh district that all the roads closed due to snowfall in the district be opened within 72 hours as the state government is ready to provide all assistance to the district administration to rebuild infrastructure damaged due to the sudden snowfall.

Sharma, who reached the district today, in the first leg of his three-district tour of Almora, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar to get on-the-spot damages’ reports due to record snowfall in the last two days, said he has released a sum of Rs 50 lakh for repair of the roads damaged due to snowfall in the district. “We have also decided to give 50 per cent subsidy in fuelwood from the date till December 31, for people could use the fuelwood to brave the impending cold conditions in the state due to snowfall,” said the Additional Chief Secretary.

He said he would visit Bageshwar and Almora districts after the tour of Pithoragarh as both the districts have received heavy snowfall and witnessed damage to basic infrastructure like electricity poles, water pipelines and roads. “Garhwal division of the state has not witnessed as much damage as did Kumaon division,” said the Additional Chief Secretary.

Meanwhile, reports of damage due to snowfall are pouring in from several parts of Kumaon division. According to the report received from Didihat, a marriage party that had gone to Bharari village of Bageshwar district from Hat village of Didihat sub-division is still trapped near Chaukori and could not reach the grooms’ home even after two days. “The marriage party is stranded at Kotmanya as the road is damaged near the village. The marriage party is waiting for removal of heavy debris that has come on to the road from above the hill slope,” said Sanju Pant, a member of the marriage party.

According to reports received from Lohaghat, 36 passengers on a Pithoragarh-bound roadways bus escaped miraculously as the roof of the petrol pump where the bus stopped to fill the fuel suddenly fell on the bus. “The roof of the petrol pump, which could not bear the load of snow that had gathered on it, collapsed suddenly, damaging the bus. The passengers escaped unhurt,” said a state roadways spokesman in Lohaghat.