Dewatering of Army's Badami Bagh cantonment almost done

SRINAGAR: The dewatering of Army's Badami Bagh cantonment here, which was marooned on September 7 as river Jhelum breached its banks at Shivpora, has nearly been completed, officials said.

"Several dewatering pumps including two heavy duty pumps were installed to drain out water from Badami Bagh Cantonment area and the operation is nearing completion," an official of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ( ONGC) told PTI.

He said as much of the water has been drained out of the army installation, which houses the headquarter of the strategic Chinar Corps, some of the pumps have been moved to civilian areas like Jawahar Nagar for expediting the dewatering in these areas.

"After Badami Bagh, we were told to move the pumps to Jawahar Nagar. We have six heavy-duty pumps which have come from Hyderabad, Vadodara and Mumbai in various parts of the city based on the requirement of the state administration," the ONGC official said.

Badami Bagh cantonment, which is located in the foothills of Zabarwan Mountain range, was marooned in nearly 12 feet of water when River Jhelum breached the embankment at several places including Shivpora.

The helipad, the ordnance depot and several other key army installations were affected by the floods.

The dewatering operations in civilian areas have been going on for the last 10 days but areas like Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Bemina and Batamaloo are still under three feet of water.