Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 19: The Border Roads Organization (BRO) today rescued 45 people including 40 Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawans from Zojila and with the improvement in weather, Srinagar-Leh National Highway (NH) re-opened for traffic this morning while Mughal road and Bandipora-Gurez road remained shut for traffic.
At least 45 persons including 40 Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawans stranded on Zojila top since last night were today rescued in a swift operation by personnel of Border Roads Organization.
The evacuation started on an information that the vehicles coming from Kargil to Srinagar got stuck at the Captain Morh due to the icy and slippery road.
The Border Roads officials along with troops of 115 Infantry Batallion of Territorial Army rushed to the spot along with snow cutters and necessary equipment and started the clearance of the snow at the Capitan Morh.
Captain Niraj Kumar Singh of Project Beacon said that the rescue operation which started at 5 pm yesterday, culminated at 1 am today in which 45 stranded commuters at the Zojila Top were rescued.
He said about 40 ITBP personnel and five locals were trapped in the snow . “The whole stretch was icy because of sub zero temperature in the area and the vehicles got stuck amid chaos”, he said.
Over the past three days, Kashmir valley experienced snow and rainfall intermittently which led to plunging of both maximum and minimum temperatures and closure of key highways. However, there was no snowfall or rains in any part of Kashmir today, though overnight rainfall lashed Srinagar.
An official of Traffic Police told Excelsior here that Srinagar-Leh National Highway was thrown open today for traffic at 3:20 pm after improvement in weather. He said that Srinagar-Jammu National Highway is through for traffic. “However, Bandipora-Gurez road and Mughal road are closed for traffic,” the Traffic Police official said.
A Meteorological Department official said there is forecast of dry weather till Saturday. According to Meteorological Department, Gulmarg was coldest in Valley today where maximum temperature was recorded -1.0 while night temperature settled at -4.6. The maximum temperature in summer capital Srinagar was recorded 11.1 degree Celsius temperature while night temperature was 2.9 degree Celsius.
Qazigund recorded 9.2 degree Celsius maximum temperature while minimum temperature settled at 2.2 degree Celsius. Pahalgam recorded 8.1 degree Celsius day temperature and night temperature was -0.5 degree Celsius.
Kokernag in South Kashmir recorded 8.1 degree Celsius maximum temperature and 0.4 degree Celsius minimum temperature. The day temperature in Kupwara settled at 9.3 degree Celsius while the minimum temperature was at 0.8 degree Celsius. Leh recorded a maximum of 5.0 degree Celsius while minimum temperature settled at -7.9 degree Celsius. The maximum temperature in Kargil was recorded 5.2 degree Celsius while night temperature settled at -5.8 degree Celsius.
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