After 73 years of wait for power, 3 J&K villages along LOC on national grid

For three hours of electricity, the Keran area, with a population of 14,000 in four panchayats, was till recently dependent on three old diesel generator sets

Negotiating months of heavy snowing and the Covid-19 lockdown, the Kupwara district administration connected three villages located along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Keran area to the national electricity grid, ending a wait since Independence for power supply.

The job was not easy, officials said, recalling the acute shortage of manpower for the work after restrictions were imposed following the abrogation of Article 370 and the imposition of lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic

It is an arduous five hours journey to Keran from here on a fair-weather road that meanders through apple and walnut orchards of