Silt found, lifting of water from Ashwani khud suspended

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, January 9

Snow might have enthralled the tourists but it has left a trail of destruction with supply of power being the major casualty. People reeled under the cold weather conditions for more than 16 hours in Kasauli and its surrounding areas yesterday as a major snag occurred in the 33 KV power station.

Two employees of the power department were found drunk and the police got their medical examination conducted after a complaint about their misbehaviour was received, stated Kasauli SHO Kalyan Singh.

The district administration, meanwhile, has suspended lifting of water from the Ashwani Khud following occurrence of high quantity of silt. This will put on hold water supply to the Solan town as long as the de-silting process was underway. The town receives major share of its water from this khud.

Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kanwar has directed officials of the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department to monitor the water quality and restore supply only after its quality was found satisfactory. The step has been taken to prevent re-emergence of jaundice. People have been advised to boil water before consumption to avert the risk of acquiring the disease. While the PWD staff was pressed to clear roads blocked due to uprooted trees, Chail road , blocked at Mahog, was opened for traffic.

HP State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) suffered losses worth Rs 30 lakh across the district on January 6 and 7 owing to the heavy snow, rains, storm and lightening, revealed Superintending Engineer, Dheeraj Mittal. He said efforts were afoot to restore power supply in various effected places and it has been restored at Chail.

As many as 82 poles, 2,185 conductors and 20 transformers were damaged in two days due to heavy snowfall. Major loss of Rs 16.9 lakh was suffered in Solan division followed by Rs 4.64 lakh in Nalagarh, Rs 3.2 lakh in Parwanoo, Rs 3.1 lakh in Arki and Rs 2.26 lakh in Baddi.

Superintending Engineer, Sirmaur, Dinesh Gupta, said the district suffered losses worth 90 lakh with major losses of Rs 46 lakh occurring in the Rajgarh division where heavy snow at Nohradhar, Sangrah, Habban and Shillai had made even the restoration work arduous. Losses worth Rs 20 lakh and Rs 16 lakh were suffered in the Nahan division and Paonta Sahib divisions, respectively.

Gupta said out of the 500 transformers which had been damaged as many as 350 had been restored and work was underway to restore the rest.