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India Meteorological Department report
According to the IMD report dated 24th February @ 1600 hrs, a western disturbance lies over Jammu and Kashmir and neighborhood. Satellite imagery indicates multi-layered clouds with embedded moderate to intense thunder clouds at few places over Jammu and Kashmir. Moderate rainfall/snow fall is likely at many places over Jammu and Kashmir during the next 24 hours. Appropriate advisories have been sent to all quarters.
2. The Western disturbance earlier affected the northern parts of the country from 16th to 20th February, 2005 causing widespread snowfall over Jammu & Kashmir. Cold and dry northwesterly/northerly winds have set in over plains of northwest and west central India resulting in cold wave conditions in these areas. However, the cold wave conditions are likely to abate after 24 hours.
3. Jammu and Kashmir has experienced light to moderate snowfall on 24.2.2005 at different places. Due to accumulation of snow and the prevailing clear weather conditions, the danger of avalanches still remains.
4. IMD has been requested to send 6 hourly reports on the weather situation. Ministry of Defence has also been requested to advise Snow Avalanche Studies Establishment (SASE) to send 6 hourly weather forecasts in the context of snowfall/avalanche to the Control Room of MHA (Fax No.23093750).
Event:
5. As per IMD, snowfall upto 2m has occurred at many places in the higher reaches of the Pir Panjal range during 16-20th February, 2005. Highest snowfall recorded in the last 30 years in J & K region has been 4.5 m in February-1996 in Banihal and 8.4 m in February-1967 in Gulmarg. However, initial reports indicate snow accumulation upto 40 ft at several places in different districts. As per the reports received from the State Government, 243 persons have lost their lives and more than 79 persons are missing due to snowfall and avalanches. 443 persons have been rescued so far including 40 foreigners. 10, 000 houses have been damaged. Rabi crop and the plantations have suffered extensive damage. Anantnag, Doda, Pulwama and Poonch are among the worst affected districts.
6. About 300 search and rescue personnel including Army and Para Military Forces have taken shelter inside the tunnel for safety reasons. About 1000 people have been held up near Ramban and 70 loaded carriers are stranded at Batote.
Relief measures taken by the State Government
7. State Crisis Management Group under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary is meeting everyday to review the situation. State Government has set up round the clock State Disaster Management Control Room in Jammu and Divisional Control Room in Srinagar. Sub-divisional control rooms have also been set up at few places. State Control Room is in constant touch with Ministry of Home Affairs Control Room to exchange information on the rescue and relief operations. Daily situation reports are being received from the State Govt.
8. The State Government has take necessary rescue and relief operations which include ex-gratia relief of Rs.50,000 to the next of kin of the deceased, Rs.25,000 to the persons severely injured and Rs.5,000 for minor injuries. Relief is also being provided at the rate of Rs.10, 000 for fully damaged houses and Rs.6, 000 for partially damaged houses.
9. Deputy Commissioners of the affected districts have been provided upto Rs.50 lakh for undertaking immediate rescue and relief operations. Civil administration with the assistance of armed forces, paramilitary forces and state Police is making all efforts to reach out to remote locations in different districts for search and rescue operations. Relief materials are also being airdropped in far-flung areas. Armed forces have also provided food packets to stranded passengers on the national highway.
10. Ministry of Defence has been requested to instruct the HAWS, Gulmarg to assist the civil authorities at Anantnag in rescue and relief operations and they are expected to be deployed today.
11. State Government requested for assistance of Army and BRO clearance of roads in the interior areas. Ministry of Defence has been requested to advise their Engg. Units to assist the Civil authorities. Ministry of Defence has already made available two dozers ex-Srinagar. About 1000 people stranded on the National Highway between Ramban- Jammu and Loharmunda-Srinagar are being taken to Jammu and Srinagar and their further movement to respective destinations is being facilitated. On 25.2.2005, around 1200 persons from Ramban and Banihal are being airlifted ex-Udhampur to Srinagar by IAF aircraft.
12. Two battalions of ITBP are also being deployed on 26.2.2005 in Srinagar to assist the civil administration in search and rescue operations. ITBP have been advised to take adequate number of spades and shovels with them so that local volunteers can also be engaged in search and rescue and also road clearance operations. Ministry of Civil Aviation has been requested to arrange special flight for ITBP personnel on 26.2.2005(F/N).
Coordination:
13. MHA is coordinating rescue and relief in association with all the concerned Ministries/ Departments of Government of India and the State Government. An Inter-Ministerial Core Group under Secretary (BM) (MHA) is reviewing the situation and coordination meetings are being held twice daily.
Sector/Department-wise situation
14. Sector wise situation is as under:
i) Power:
a) 220 KV Kishanpur-Wanpoh line (State owned):
- 4 Towers have been collapsed and Conductor snapping at 1 or 2 spots reported so for.
Action Taken: Action plan is being chalked out by the State Government with the assistance of Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI)/Ministry of Power, for immediate restoration.
b) 132 KV Udhampur-Wanpoh Line (State owned)
- Trees have fallen at 2 spots – Trees removed. Line was charged but could not hold it.
- Conductor snapping at 2-3 places- Further patrolling of line being organised.
c) Distribution Network: Survey and immediate restoration work being taken by the State Government.
State Government has informed that about 50,000 poles have been damaged.
Uri generation has been started from 1800 hours on 22nd February,2005, with a load varying between 100-130 MW and is feeding Srinagar area along with Ziankote, Pampore, Bemina, Wagnapura, Habak, Chashma-Shahi, as a separate island grid. Loher Jhelum HEP with a load of 35-40 MW is feeding Jhelum, Amargarh, Kupwara, as a separate island. With these two islands, nearly 55 % of the Valley load [40% on 22nd] is being met and the load is less due to outage of distribution system. Generation from Uri and Jhelam HEP will be increased according to addition of load after rectifications.
In Jammu area full load (nearly 550 MW) is being met from rest of the Northern grid.
Aerial patrolling has commenced from 24th February, 2005 and will continue for few days for restoration of 220 KV Kishenpur-Pampore and 132 KV Udhampur-Wanpoh lines. A technical team of Powergrid has been deputed to Srinagar to assess the situation and assist in early restoration of the transmission system.
PGCI will assist the State Government in restoration of power in entire valley.
ii) Telecom:
I) OFC route between Udhampur and Srinagar washed away due to land slide/snow. These have been restored using gensets.
II) E/A at Srinagar fault causing mobile service failure. It has been restored using gensets and mobile services are operational.
The telecom services are being gradually restored in the entire valley. 34 exchanges are not operational. Dept of Telecom and BSNL have been requested to restore all telephone exchanges at the earliest possible.
iii) Civil Aviation: 10 flights were operated ex-Srinagar on 23.2.05, which carried around 1400 passengers. Ten flights i.e. five additional flights are proposed to be operated during next few days. There are around 3000 persons who need to be transported ex-Jammu to Srinagar by air as the road has not opened yet. Ministry of Civil Aviation will schedule special flights for these people once the details are made available from the State Govt. Revenue Commissioner J & K has been requested to send these details immediately to Ministry of Civil Aviation.
iv) Health: Ministry of Health is taking action to provide essential medicines required by the State Government. Hypothermia is the most common disease in such situations. 198 Cartons carrying about 3 Tons of essential medicines have been airlifted on 23rd February, 2005 to Srinagar by Indian Airlines. 15 MT medicines are being airlifted by civil flights from 24th February, 2005 onwards. Divisional Commissioner, Srinagar has been informed to make necessary arrangements. Armed forces and CRPF coys deployed in the valley are also assisting civil administration in providing emergency health care to the affected people.
v) Petroleum products:
The status of POL stocks and supplies in Srinagar as on 24.02.2005 is as under:
PRODUCT STOCK
MS (Petrol) 306 KL
SKO (Kerosene) 1163 KL
HSD (Diesel) 1699 KL
LPG (MT)@ 280 MT (pumpable stock)
@ In addition 150 MT of dead stock is available, and some of it could be retrieved if the situation so warrants.
MS and SKO are at minimum stock level. IOC has advised AFS, Avantipur for sending 100 KL SKO to Srinagar by Tank Trucks, by downgrading ATF, to overcome the present crisis. IOC has arranged 120 barrels, 60 each of SKO and MS at Pathanlot for airlifting to Srinagar by Air Force. 11.2 KL in 56 barrels of petrol from Pathankot and 57 KL of ATF (eqv K Oil) from Agra have been airlifted to Srinagar on 24.2.2005. The Ministry of Defence has been requested to plan airlift of POL from Pathankot, Agra and Udhampur on 25th February, 2005 and K.oil in tanker trucks from Chandigarh on 25th February, 2005.
Bottling of 5814 LPG cylinders was done on 20 & 21 February. Another 4500 LPG cylinders have been bottled on 23.2.2005. Bottling plant has been restored at Srinagar and is operating at 40% of its capacity. MOD has again been requested to explore movement of LPG by air to Srinagar. Ministry of Petroleum has been advised to monitor the bottling of LPG cylinders at Srinagar to ensure that there is no shortfall.
The ITBP informed that the stock of diesel for running genests around the Jawahar Tunnel is very critical and require about 4000-5000 Lt. Diesel immediately. The per day requirement approximately is 400 Lt. Ministry of Petroleum and ITBP will pack the product in barrel/ jericane and Ministry of Defence will arrange for airdropping.
Ministry of Petroleum has been requested to ensure availability all petroleum products in Jammu and Kashmir. A control room will be set up in the Ministry to monitor daily stock position at different locations in J & K.
vi) Transport Aircraft: State Government has requested for 2 small helicopters viz Chetak or one big helicopter viz M-8/M-17 at the disposal of Divisional Commissioner at Srinagar for rescue and relief operations in the remote areas of the affected districts in the division. One Mi-17 has been made available on 23rd February, 2005. Another transport aircraft is also being arranged by the State Govt.
vii) Clearance of Jammu-Srinagar National Highway [294 km]{refer map attached}: Jammu-Ramban stretch is open to traffic. Srinagar-Loharmunda is also open for one-way traffic. Out of total 294 km length between Jammu and Srinagar, now 36 km [45km on 22.2.2005] of this highway between Ramban-Banihal-Jawahar Tunnel-Loharmunda is blocked at different places and BRO along with armed forces and state administration is making all efforts for road clearance at three places viz. Ramban, Banihal and Lohar Munda. About 300 persons and 30 equipments [14 on 22.2.2005] are engaged in the road clearing operation. There was light to moderate snowfall in the valley today which hampered the road clearance work on 24.2.2005. BRO will be able to clear the National Highway by 28th February, 2005.
4 dozers and 6 snow-ploughs were to be airlifted on 23 February from Leh to Avantipur. However, only one big dozer has been airlifted on 23rd February. Airlifting of another dozer D-80 could not take place on 24th Feb due to bad weather at Srinagar. BRO has also been requested to take immediate action for assembling the newly acquired snow ploughs at Leh and put these into operation. 2 dozers were made available from Rajouri at Ramban. The State Government has mobilized some dozers/JCB ex-Jammu for BRO so that clearance operation could further be expedited. BRO has been advised to press these additional machines into operation immediately.
viii) Requirements of essential items: The State Government is airlifting essential commodities like milk powder, vegetables etc ex-Jammu for Srinagar.
iX) Supply of foodgrains: The Department of Food and Public Distribution has informed that as on 22nd February 2005, at Jammu Division, 14,484 MT wheat, 18,634 MT rice and 6552 MT sugar is available. At Srinagar Division, 5257 MT wheat, 13568 MT rice and 118 MT sugar is available. State Government has requested for enhancement of the sugar stock at Srinagar. In case the stock position of sugar at Srinagar becomes critical, this will be airlifted from Jammu Division, where adequate stocks are available. The Department of Food and Public Distribution informed that FCI Depot at Jammu has been instructed to release the required quantity of foodgrain and sugar to the State Government. State Govt is hiring special cargo aircraft for airlift of all essential items from Jammu to Srinagar. The Department of Food and Public Distribution was advised to monitor the foodgrain stock position in Srinagar in consultation with the State Government and ensure availability of adequate stock.
x) Satellite phones: MHA has provided five Satellite phones for use of officers engaged in the rescue and relief operations. State has requested some more such Satellite phones. It was advised to procure them from the funds of the CRF, as it is an approved item under the CRF guidelines. State Government has not reported about procurement of Satellite phones.
xi) Immediate requirement of Rs. 50.00 crore: State Government has requested for release of Rs.50.00 crore for taking rescue and relief operations. It was mentioned that an amount of Rs. 42.43 crore has been allocated in the CRF for the year 2004-05 comprising of Rs. 31.82 crore as Central share and Rs. 10.61 crore as State share. Entire amount of Central share has already been released. The State Government was advised to send the details of expenditure from the CRF so that their request of Rs. 50.00 crore can be considered. The request of the State Government is being processed. The Central Team for damage assessment led by Joint Secretary (Kashmir) MHA, has been constituted and is visiting the State from 28th Feb, 2005.
MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS
NEW DELHI DATED FALGUNA 6, 1926/ 25TH FEBRUARY 2005
OK/PM
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