Srinagar, Jan 28: The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was partially reopened for traffic on Wednesday after remaining suspended due to snowfall a day earlier, officials said.
“Traffic has been allowed from both directions on the highway after the road was cleared,” the officials said.
They, however, said that only light motor vehicles (LMVs) were allowed to ply on the 270-km highway – the only all-weather road link connecting the valley with the rest of the country. Efforts are underway to fully restore the highway, as clearance operations are being conducted at vulnerable stretches along the road, officials said.
They said the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) personnel sprinkled salt and urea on the road to improve conditions for safe driving as parts of the highway were slippery in the morning due to frosty conditions after the snowfall.
Most parts of Kashmir received snowfall on Tuesday that had led to the suspension of traffic on the highway and flight operations at the Srinagar airport.
The 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 night, the officials said. However, Srinagar recorded warmer-than-expected night temperature. The minimum in the city settled at 0.1 degrees Celsius, a degree 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.
The tourist resorts of Gulmarg in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district and Sonamarg in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district were the coldest recorded places in the valley, recording a low of minus 9.8 degrees Celsius, the officials said.
The Pahalgam tourist resort 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, they added.
The Kashmir valley is currently 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 last year, ends on January 30.
The Meteorological Department has forecast light rain/snow at a few places on Wednesday, and said the weather would remain cloudy but dry after that till January 31.
A fresh western disturbance is likely to impact the region on February 1, which could bring another spell of wet weather, it said.
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