A massive landslide on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in Udhampur crushed a petrol pump near Balinallah on Sunday evening. Fortunately, no casualties were reported as staff and stock were moved in time. Authorities quickly brought the situation under control, though the petrol pump suffered extensive damage amid continuous rainfall.
Debris of a petrol pump damaged by a landslide on Jammu-Srinagar highway, in Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir. (Pic/PTI)
The weather situation in the northern part of India does not seem to ease. Amid heavy rainfall and landslides in Jammu and Kashmir, a massive landslide triggered by rainfall on Sunday near Balinallah on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in Udhampur. The landslide, unfortunately, crushed a petrol pump under its debris.
With the petrol pump being hit by a massive landslide, the situation did seem alarming. Fortunately, the landslide did not cause any major damage in the area, and authorities were able to take control of the situation in a very quick period of time.
Soon after the petrol pump was hit, the owner of the petrol pump, Jai Pal Singh Jamwal, claimed that this incident happened around 6:30-7 pm.
The petrol pump owner asserted that "this incident happened around 7 pm... There was a crack in the mountain nearby, which caused the load on the petrol pump to be very high. Due to which this whole collapse happened," as cited by news agency ANI.
Jai Pal Singh Jamwal further claimed that there were no casualties. Adding to his statement to the media, he further addressed, "There was no loss because we all could see that the mountain was cracking. So we had already taken out all the stuff. The shift boys had also moved aside. We had also shut down our sale and stopped the tankers. The fire brigade vehicle had also come here because we still had some stock lying with us..."
Moreover, Fire Officer Sunil, while addressing that the situation was taken under control in just a few hours, said that “the fire department reached the petrol pump as soon as they received the call. It has been raining continuously since morning... We saw a huge landslide here, which caused the hill to fall down. There was no loss of life here, but there was a lot of damage to the HP petrol pump. The landslide is still going on," as cited by news agency ANI.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also held a meeting on Sunday with officials at Raj Bhavan in Jammu to take stock of the flood situation in parts of Jammu and Kashmir. Along with Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, JK Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Union MoS Jitendra Singh were also present during the meeting.
The meeting chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh came after he visited a government hospital in Jammu to meet victims who sustained injuries in the Kishtwar cloudburst incident. Rajnath Singh lauded the efforts of the doctors of the medical college for taking care of the injured with complete dedication.
While addressing the media in the presence of Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Rajnath Singh stated that all patients were out of danger and were recovering well.
He said, "I also wanted to go to the spot, but due to bad weather, it is not possible to go there. And it has also been informed that there has been a landslide, so the vehicle could not move forward. All the patients have recovered and are recovering well. And I want to congratulate all the doctors of this medical college for taking care of all the injured people with full dedication, and all are in good condition," as cited by news agency ANI.
(With inputs from ANI)
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