Visitors flood Shimla as Met predicts snow today

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 14

Now when the city has started limping back to normalcy, the Meteorological Department has predicted heavy snow on January 15 and 16.

While the district administration, Municipal Corporation and state electricity board (HPSEB) are struggling hard to restore normalcy after the heavy snowfall on January 6, the town is again flooded with tourists in view of the long weekend. With the minimum temperature in Shimla improving a little at 0.5°C, severe cold wave conditions continue to prevail and the herculean task of road clearance is still on. The maximum temperature in Shimla was recorded at 8.6°C.

Tourists from Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Rajasthan and Uttrakhand made a beeline to the Queen of Hills in view of the three-day holiday. The city witnessed long traffic jams because the administration advised tourists not to go beyond Kufri which had seen a very heavy snowfall. This resulted in thousands of vehicles moving in and around the city, choking roads.

The fact that the Met Office has predicted heavy snow during the next two days and moderate snow and rain at scattered places on January 17 and 18 has attracted more tourists. Though power supply has been restored in most parts barring certain areas in Summer Hill, Chhota Shimla and Dhalli, the water supply is still being made after a gap of few days.

With the pumping of water being affected due to power failure, most areas are receiving water after four or five days. In the colder areas like Jakhu, Lakkar Bazaar and Sanjauli, the water pipes have frozen. The Local MC supplied 28 MLD of water from the three water schemes of Giri, Gumma and Chaid today.

Though 30 MLD is enough to meet the requirement of the town in winters, when a large percentage of the population is out of the city, considering the huge floating population of tourists, the requirement has scaled up to to 38 MLD.

Though Circular Road and other link roads to hospitals and other localities have been cleared, many smaller link roads are yet to be cleared, hampering vehicular movement. The maximum temperature in most other towns has improved with Sundernagar recording 14.5 Celsius, Bhuntar 12.2°C, Kalpa -3C, Dharamsala 11.6 C, Una 18.3 C, Nahan 13.6 C and Solan 15 C.

The minimum temperature at various places were Sundernagar-0.2C, Bhuntar -0.8 C, Kalpa -6 C, Dharamsala 7.4 C, Una 3 C, Nahan 5.3 C, Solan -0.4 C, Manlai 6.8 C, Keylong -13.9 C and Kangra 0.8C.

Snow exposes poor governance: BJP MLA

Mandi: Former minister and BJP leader Jai Ram Thakur today slammed the state government for failing to restore electricity, transport services and water supply in the snow-affected areas of the state. He said people were living without electricity and adequate water supply nine days after snowfall, adding it reflected on poor governance in the state. “In Seraj, the district administration has failed to restore essential services till now,” he remarked. He accused the Congress workers of minting money by pocketing contracts for restoration of road, electricity and water supply in the snow-affected areas. Thakur alleged the Chief Minister had announced Rs 25 crore for restoration work but there was no progress on the ground. He also expressed grief over the demise of two NIT students, who were found dead near Shikari Devi temple yesterday. He said warning signs should be erected at such places to alert the visitors. Thakur said the state government should take protective measures to avoid such incidents in future. TNS