With the increase in the severity of the winter season, a regular control room has been set up in Malika-e-Kohsar Murree – a popular hill station – to monitor the snowfall season.
Senior Civil Defence Instructor Sadaf Zahoor has been appointed in-charge of the control room while 25 uniformed Civil Defence personnel have been posted in the newly-created tourist district of Murree on the instructions of Civil Defence Director General Shahid Kalyami.
These officials will help in removing the vehicles stuck in the snow during the snow season, assist in the correctness of the traffic system and guide the tourists.
With the establishment of the control room, the district administration has also issued a code of conduct for Murree. The snowfall and tourist season will start at the hill station on November 1.
The code of conduct has been issued for tourist families, shopkeepers and hoteliers. Instructions have been issued to all hotel owners to display the fixed new rent of rooms with heaters and simple rooms on the counters in bold letters. Shopkeepers have been made liable to charge government fixed prices for food items. Hotels and shops will be closed and cases and heavy fines will be imposed for overcharging.
The district administration has set up salt sprinkler checkposts for immediate snow melting at 14 main snowfall spots of the highway department.
There will be a computerised counting of vehicles at the three main entrances of Murree from Rawalpindi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Kashmir and no vehicle will be allowed to enter after the specified number.
On the other hand, the parking areas in Murree have also increased by 50 per cent as compared to the last year.
In-charge control room, senior instructor Sadaf Zahoor while talking to The Express Tribune said: “We have started 24-hour duty in the control room which will be in three shifts.”
He said the control room has been attached to the meteorological department and a red alert will be issued in Murree with the forecast of snowfall by the met department.
He vowed not to let any untoward incident happen during the snowfall season this year. The public and private educational institutions of Murree will be closed for winter vacations for three months from the second week of November due to severe cold weather.
Meanwhile, six modern vehicles have been brought to Murree for the immediate removal of snow from the roads. Burning of gas cylinders in fully enclosed rooms has been prohibited while gas heaters can be installed in residential rooms only under the standard operating procedures.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2023.
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