Highway closed, flights grounded as snowfall cripples normal life in Kashmir for third consecutive day

Intermittent snowfall continued across the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday for the third consecutive day, disrupting normal life with road and air traffic taking a hit.

Snowfall continued in most parts of Kashmir for the third day resulting in the closure of the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the only road link between Kashmir and the rest of the country, an official said.

Traffic movement was suspended in view of the heavy accumulation of snow around the Jawahar tunnel. Nearly 4,500 vehicles, mostly trucks carrying essentials to the valley, are stranded along the highway at various places, he said. Snow clearance operations were in full swing and efforts were on to restore movement of the stranded vehicles along the highway, but the fresh snowfall was hampering the process.

Flights at the Srinagar airport remained grounded for the third consecutive day due to poor visibility and accumulation of snow on the runways. An official at the airport said that for the last three days, no flight could take off or arrive due to poor visibility.

Airlines have already canceled or rescheduled flights and as per the officials, it was highly unlikely for air traffic to resume till Wednesday afternoon.

The administration in Kashmir has issued an avalanche warning in view of the inclement weather. The deputy commissioners have been directed to advise people living in avalanche-prone areas not to venture out during the warning period to avoid loss of life.

An official of the MeT department said that Srinagar received 10-cm snowfall in the last 24 hours till 1:30 pm while Qazigund, the gateway town of Kashmir, recorded the highest depth in the plains across Valley - 31 cms - during the time and 80 cms (33 inches) in the last 48 hours.

The world-famous skiing resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir, the official said, received 21-cm fresh snowfall in the last 24 hours while Pahalgam hill resort of south Kashmir, which also serves as a base camp during the annual Amarnath yatra, recorded 19 cms of snowfall.

Reports said that several main roads and almost all interior lanes are still clogged with snow even as the administration pressed men and machinery into service in the early hours of the day to clear snow from the roads. The snowfall has also led to disruptions in the milk and vegetable supply to Srinagar.

Due to night-long cloud cover, the minimum temperatures improved across Kashmir, bringing some respite from the severe cold wave. The minimum temperature in Srinagar was minus 0.8 degrees Celsius - up from the previous night’s minus 0.9 degrees Celsius.

Gulmarg recorded a low of minus 4 degrees Celsius while in Pahalgam mercury settled at minus 1.1 degrees.

Kashmir is in the middle of ‘Chillai-Kalan’, the 40-day winter period which commenced on December 21 and ends on January 30. The period is considered the harshest time of winter when the chances of snowfall are most frequent and maximum.