Braving cold, distt admin on a mission to keep Bandipora-Gurez Road open during winter

Bandipora: As the 85-KM long Bandipora- Gurez road was closed for traffic before couple of days after higher reaches of Kashmir valley witnessed heavy snowfall, the district administration Bandipora with the help of Border Roads Organization (BRO) is now making all efforts to clear the snow at Razdaan pass to make the road through for vehicular traffic here in this north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
Gurez valley remains cut off from the rest of the world for about six months and the people living there have to stock basic amenities upto October for the next six months.The road is also closed with first snowfall on Razdan top- the highest point between Gurez and Bandipora road situated at an altitude of 3300m. However, this year the district administration decided to keep the road open and with the help of BRO is trying to keep it open. Despite freezing weather, chilly winds and icy surface on the 35-kilometer long stretch from Bandipora to Razdaan, it is for the first time that the district administrict administration and BRO is putting its workforce and machinery in such a challenging weather to clear the road to provide extended connectivity to Gurez valley with rest of the State.
Officer Commanding BRO at Bandipora, while speaking to this reporter said that many teams were setup to clear the snow from the same route. “We are making efforts to open the road for traffic to connect Gurez with the rest of the world even though the weather conditions are extremely bad”. He said, each team (two each from both sides) had officer’s subordinate staff and laboures. All the men were provided with snow cutting equipment such as snow cutters, bulldozers and excavators. “To accomplish the task, these men work for more than 08 hours per day” he said adding that while clearing the snow at the track, avalanche threat always remains there. “But despite that our men are clearing snow to open the road for vehicular movement for an extended period of time in winter and for that BRO is very keen on making it possible,” he added. All these brave men together are working hard, even under severe cold conditions to complete the work. The temperature in Razdaan Pass mostly remains sub zero level, and the weather gets extremely bad in the region during peak winters. People working here faced snowfall, blizzard, and landslides too. However, the team of Border Roads Organisation (BRO) managed to clear the snow successfully till Razdaan top, he added. V Razdaan Pass is a high mountain pass at an elevation of 3.557m (11,672ft) above the sea level and is one of the scariest roads in the world. The road is winding and in many places bordered by a drop of hundreds of meters unprotected by guardrails.
The Bandipora-Gurez road, is certainly breathtaking and it has a fearsome reputation. The pass, also known as Tragbal Pass and Razdaan pass, is closed 6 months in a year because of huge amount of snowfall. As of now, the BRO team is working non-stop and too hard to clear the highest Bandipora- Gurez route of snow up till the Razdaan Pass. The task is in full force, and it is expected that the route will be opened in the coming days, if everything works out fine.
District Devlopment Commissioner Bandipora Dr Owais Ahmad is all geared to cope with all the problems that snow will bring — maintaining facilities for passengers, and ensuring smooth mobility and functioning of the valley and other essential services like electricity, water and medical emergencies. “We have dispatched all the essential commodities earlier to the valley,fuel dumping for Gurez has been completed much before deadline. 5.50 lac litres HSD has been adequately stored, Power availability for Gurez will be almost double compared to last year”, he said. He further added that during harsh weather circumstances,if we face any sort of medicine emergency we have arranged chopper services to cope up with the conditions which will continue in the winter as well. Meanwhile Locals of the gurez valley apprised the District admin by saying that he combated with all odds to keep Bandipora Gurez road open amid harsh weather conditions.