Mercury dips as KP continue to receive heavy snowfall

PESHAWAR: The mountainous areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa continued to receive heavy snowfall on the second consecutive day on Friday, bringing down the mercury.

Chitral, Upper Dir, Swat, Parachinar and other mountainous areas received heavy snowfall, bringing routine life to standstill in some valleys.

A number of villages in Upper and Lower Chitral districts received snowfall for the second consecutive day.

The locals said Sheshi Koh received one foot snowfall, Madklasht 14 inches, and Gabor one foot, Bamburet and Sheikhanda 8 inches, Golen received 5 inches, Thorkhow, Morkhow, Garam Chashma and Booni received 4 inches of snowfall.

It was also reported that the Lowari Tunnel had been closed due to heavy snowfall and long queues of the passenger vehicles had been stranded on both sides of the tunnel. Likewise, the road leading to Chitral City also surfaced with snow.

The driver community said that the road had been cleared of snow but two vans could not pass through it.

They asked the district administration to remove the snow from the road so that at least two vehicles could cross each other.

The administration of the Upper and Lower Chitral districts said that there were no reports of traffic jam due to snowfall anywhere in the districts.

On the other hand, the people of the areas were confined to their homes as besides snowfall, cool breeze had multiplied their miseries.

They were unable to get firewood, gas, electricity, heaters and even the price-hike of commodities of daily use had made the poor people lose power of purchase.