AT MINUS 8.8, SRINAGAR RECORDS COLDEST NIGHT AFTER 30 YEARS

Frozen water supplies trigger requests for drinking water tankers.

Srinagar city registered the coldest night after three decades as minus 8.8-degree Celsius temperature was recorded here by MET officials. Amid this severe cold wave, more taps are becoming dry as the water pipes have frozen.

Growing shortage of drinking water is a cause of concern as the administration has a limited number of drinking water tankers available.

“We are trying to cater as many as localities in Srinagar city, but the demand is very high” a P.H.E engineer who is monitoring the control room of the department told the reporter.

Drinking water shortage is much higher in the rural areas as the temperatures have plummeted much further than Srinagar city, most of the water supplies schemes are frozen in the hinterland of Kashmir.

Amid this severe shortage of drinking water, MET Department Director of J&K Sonum Lotus was quoted by news agencies saying that there would be improvement in the night temperatures from today.

Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir witnessed largely paralysed life for the day as people prefer to stay indoors due to persistent cold waves here.

“In 1991 the minimum temperature recorded was minus 11.8 in Srinagar,” Lotus said.

The 40-day long period of harsh winter cold known locally as the ‘Chillai Kalan’ ends on Sunday, but not without leaving an indelible mark in the record book for ushering in one of Kashmir’s coldest winters in living memory.

The minimum temperature was minus 12.0 in Pahalgam and minus 8.0 in Gulmarg. Leh town of Ladakh had minus 16.6, Kargil minus 17.4 and Drass minus 26.2 as the night’s lowest temperature. Jammu city had 5.8, Katra 5.4, Batote 1.1, Bannihal 0.6 and Bhaderwah minus 1.5 as the minimum temperature.

With agency inputs