PESHAWAR, Feb 18: Power supply to several parts of the Chitral district was disrupted on Tuesday due to heavy snowfall, adding to the miseries of the people of the remotely-situated valley.

“Power supply to Chitral from the national distribution system through the Dir-Chitral transmission line was terminated as a safety measure to avoid losses,” a Peshawar-based spokesman of the Water and Power Development Authority told Dawn.

Though several parts of the valley were still being provided electricity from Wapda’s local hydro-electricity generation stations, including Darosh Hydel Power station and Chitral Power House, they are not generating electricity to their maximum capacity due to shortage of water.

The decision to suspend power supply was temporarily necessitated after several of the Wapda poles on the Dir-Chitral transmission line got submerged in snow, the spokesman added.

The snow, according to some sources, rendered the Lowari Pass completely out of use even for pedestrians, besides cutting off all road and air links of the valley with other parts of the country.

It was on Feb 14, when two PIA flights operated between Chitral and Peshawar for the last time. Since then, Chitral’s air link with the rest of the country was cut off due to heavy rains and snowfall.

The Wapda spokesman said that with the suspension of electricity supply from the Dir-Chitral transmission line around 27 to 28 per cent of Chitral areas were still getting electricity from Wapda.

In addition, the two hydel power stations’ inability to produce maximum power due to water shortage left a large number of people without the facility.

The spokesman said that electricity supply was stopped as a last resort after the Dir-Chitral transmission line developed faults in quick successions despite frequent repairs made by the Wapda staff during the last two days.

“The move to stop power supply was necessary to avoid human and financial losses after the electricity poles got submerged in snow,” says a press release issued by the Peshawar Electricity Supply Company (Pesco), adding that “the facility would be restored once the situation improves”.