The winter capital Jammu recorded its hottest day of the season so far as the mercury touched 40 degrees Celsius, officials said, as a protest against power cuts and water crisis continued in different parts of the Union Territory.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir administrations announced an allocation of 207 MW of additional power by the central government to meet the increasing electricity demand.
A Meteorological Department official said the mercury continued its upward trend in Jammu, where the maximum temperature settled at 40 degrees Celsius, which is 4.4 notches above the normal for this part of the season.
This was the first time this season that the day temperature touched the 40 degrees Celsius mark in Jammu, reeling under rising temperature since March due to a prolonged dry spell.
However, the official said the minimum temperature in the city was near normal at 21.7 degrees Celsius.
The official said Katra, the base camp for the pilgrims visiting the Vaishno Devi shrine, recorded a high of 37.1 degrees Celsius and a low of 21.7 degrees Celsius.
On the other hand, the summer capital Srinagar witnessed pleasant weather with a day temperature of 28.1 degrees Celsius and a night temperature of 10.4 degrees Celsius.
Amid the rising temperatures, Jammu witnessed massive protests over unscheduled power cuts and an acute shortage of drinking water over the past two weeks.
To meet the increasing electricity demand in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union Government has allocated 207 MW of additional power to the Union Territory, Principal Secretary to Power Development Department, Nitishwar Kumar said.
Kumar, who is also principal secretary to the Lt Governor, said the order issued by the Union Ministry of Power would substantially increase power availability in J&K.
The Union Government has allocated additional power from the unallocated quota of Central Generating Stations of the Northern Region Pool to Jammu and Kashmir.
