Kashmir was stop from remainder of the country for the second consecutive day on Tuesday because the arterial Jammu-Srinagar national highway and Mughal road remained closed, while traffic was suspended thanks to snowfall across the valley.
Nearly 4500 vehicles, mostly trucks carrying essentials to the valley, are stranded along the highway at various places.
“The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway is closed thanks to accumulation of snow at many places, especially around Jawahar Tunnel,” a politician of the control department said.
He said snow clearance operations were fully swing and efforts were on to revive movement of stranded vehicles along the 260 kilometre road.
Mughal Road, which connects the valley to Jammu division through Shopian-Rajouri axis, has been closed for several days thanks to heavy snowfall within the region.
The officials said south Kashmir’s Kulgam district received highest snowfall with three to four feet of snow accumulated at some places.
Anantnag district has also received heavy snowfall, they said.
Srinagar city has witnessed moderate snowfall for the past three days but snow clearance operations have ensured that traffic movement was happening .
Snow clearance operations are ongoing along inter-district routes also as major roads linking tehsil headquarters to district headquarters.
The administration has ensured that the essential services are least suffering from the snowfall within the city et al. within the valley.
However, slippery roads have resulted in traffic jams at some places.The flight operations to and from Srinagar remained suspended for second consecutive day thanks to poor visibility, the officials said.
The minimum temperature improved in most places within the valley thanks to the snowfall but still stayed below the melting point , the officials said.
Srinagar city — the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir — recorded a coffee of minus 0.8 degrees Celsius — up from the previous night’s minus 0.9 degrees Celsius, they said.
The minimum temperature in Gulmarg tourist resort settled at minus 4 degrees Celsius compared to minus 5 degrees Celsius an evening earlier.
Pahalgam tourist resort, which also is a base camp for the annual Amarnath yatra in south Kashmir, recorded a coffee of minus 1.1 degrees Celsius up from minus 6.7 degrees Celsius on the previous night, the officials said.
Qazigund recorded a minimum of minus 0.2 degrees Celsius, Kupwara, within the north, minus 0.7 degrees Celsius and Kokernag, minus 1.0 degrees Celsius.
The MET Office said moderate to heavy snowfall, with isolated very heavy snowfall, was presumably to require place, especially in south Kashmir, Gulmarg, Banihal-Ramban, Poonch, Rajouri, Kistawar and Zanskar, Drass also as on the upper reaches of Ladakh UT, over next 24 hours.
