The Kashmir Center for Social and Development Studies (KCSDS), a Srinagar-based civil society group, has said that occupied Kashmir has suffered a loss of over 16 billion US dollars to infrastructure and business due to the recent devastating floods.
The floods hit the region during the first week of this month and were described as "the worst in a century" by the region's chief minister Omar Abdullah. Some 2,600 villages and several towns including Srinagar were badly hit by the flooding. Up to now, some areas are still submerged in water, resulting in colossal damage to housing, agriculture, transport and business sectors. Officials said around 300 people were killed in the floods, triggered by heavy downpour.
The devastating flood wiped out large portion of both public and private infrastructure as well as business in occupied Srinagar and in three southern districts of Anantnag, Pulwama and Kulgam. "Loss is too heavy and our preliminary estimates show the region suffered a massive damage to infrastructure and business valued at millions of dollars," Shakeel Qalander, a top industrialist told Xinhua on Friday. "The worst hit was the housing sector and other infrastructure projects."
KCSDS estimates have pegged damage to housing sector at 4.9 billion dollars. The local government has announced it would provide cash relief of 1,140 US dollars to the owners of totally damaged houses. However, Qalander said that the cash assistance is too small. "On an average we have calculated that every affected house has suffered a damage of 16,350 US dollars including the household items," said Qalander.
The floods have damaged a vast network of roads and bridges and government institutions have been washed away by the deluge. As per official estimates, of the 15,517 roads, around 12,553 have been completely or partially damaged across the region due to the massive flooding. According to experts, huge losses to businesses and industry were likely to threaten employment across the region.
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