Vehicular traffic fully restored on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway
SRINAGAR: Traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was fully restored on Wednesday, a day after being closed for vehicular movement in view of heavy snowfall, officials said.
They said heavy motor vehicles, including trucks, were allowed to ply on the 270-km highway — the only all-weather road link connecting the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country. “The highway has been restored fully, and traffic has been allowed to ply on both directions,” an official said.
Earlier in the day, only light motor vehicles were allowed to ply on the road.
According to the officials, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) personnel sprinkled salt and urea to get rid of frosty conditions on the road and ensure safe driving.
The reopening of the highway has come as a relief for the people, especially tourists, who were stranded in the Valley in the wake of its closure following inclement weather.
Most parts of Kashmir received snowfall on Tuesday, which led to the suspension of traffic on the highway and flight operations at the Srinagar airport.
Fresh snowfall across Kashmir on Tuesday led to the closure of the Jammu-Srinagar national highway and the cancellation of all flights at Srinagar airport, leaving hundreds of tourists stranded in the valley.
Flight operations also resumed at the airport on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, the night temperature plunged several degrees below the freezing point at most places in Kashmir on Tuesday. Srinagar, however, recorded warmer-than-expected night temperature — 0.1 degrees Celsius — a notch above the season’s normal.
Srinagar city and Baramulla town (at 0.4 degrees Celsius) were the only places in Kashmir where the night temperature settled above the freezing point.
Gulmarg in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district and Sonamarg in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district were the coldest places in the valley, both recording a low of minus 9.8 degrees Celsius.
The Pahalgam in south Kashmir, which also serves as one of the base camps for the annual Amarnath Yatra, recorded a low of minus 6.4 degrees Celsius.
The minimum temperature in Qazigund, the gateway town of the valley, settled at minus 4.3 degrees, while Kokernag recorded a low of minus 2.6 degrees and Kupwara minus 0.7 degrees Celsius.
The Kashmir valley is at the fag-end of ‘Chilla-i-Kalan’, a 40-day period of extreme cold during which night temperatures often drop several degrees below the freezing point, and the chances of snowfall are the highest. ‘Chilla-i-Kalan’, which began on December 21, ends on January 30. (PTI)
