Snowfall at Vaishnodevi shrine, Patnitop
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Jan 13: Heavy rain in plains and snowfall on the higher reaches of Jammu continued since last night while over 2000 vehicles have been stranded on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway after landslides in Ramban area and snowfall in Banihal and Tunnel areas.
Mata Vaishnodevi shrine at Trikuta hills and tourist resorts at Patnitop, Batote and Bhaderwah received fresh snowfall besides hilly areas of Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi, Doda, Kishtwar, Poonch and Rajouri. The chopper service and operation of Battery car at Katra Mata Vaishnodevi remained suspended due to rain, snowfall and bad weather today.
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Official sources said that Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was closed due to landslides at Mehar and 2-3 other places between Nashri and Banihal in Ramban area besides snowfall in Banihal, tunnel area and its north portal towards Qazigund. The road has turned slippery due to continuous rain and snowfall in Banihal and Tunnel area and no movement of vehicles from Srinagar or Jammu side was allowed. Some stranded light vehicles, however, were cleared in Mehar and Battery Chashma area this evening. But again rain started and further movement was stalled.
At least 2000 vehicles including most of them trucks and oil tankers have been stranded at various places on the highway including Nagrota- Bypass, Sidhra Bypass, Samba-Mansar, Udhampur- Battal- Manwal-Dhar Road, Chenani-Ramban, Banihal and Qazigund area since last evening, a senior Traffic Police official said.
At Jammu airport several flights were cancelled, while some others were delayed due to bad weather however, during the day after improvement in weather, the flights operated normally. Srinagar bound flights operation was affected due to snowfall there.
Several trains were delayed by 45 minutes to 7 hours in the region due to bad weather and fog in northern region. But some improvement has been witnessed for the last two days.
With the rain and snowfall, the power supply to various hilly and mountainous areas has been snapped. Many transformers and electric polls were damaged while restoration work has been delayed at some places due to blockage of link roads, especially in Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban and Poonch areas. The people were facing lot of hardships due to power failure in this harsh winter.
Another report said that fresh snowfall was experienced in the areas of Gandoh, Bhallessa, Kahara, Thathri, Dessa, and Marmat in Doda district. The areas like Chilly, Jakyas, Bunjwah, Kither Patnazi and Changa also received fresh snowfall of the season.
The cold wave condition forced people to remain indoors and light up bonfires and wear warm clothes to keep themselves warm in the spine chilling cold weather. The snowfall on higher reaches lead to a sudden drop in temperature and forcing people to wear warm clothes and lit fire to protect themselves from chilly weather.
Power supply in many areas of the district Doda and Bhaderwah remained affected since last night because of moderate to heavy snowfall. Several vehicles including an SRTC bus have also been trapped in Gandoh and other link roads due to heavy snowfall.
Due to snowfall at Patnitop and Batote, the movement of traffic on Udhampur-Batote-Doda-Kishtwar road was hit during morning hours, however, later snow was cleared and the traffic restored on the highway.
The Administration has issued avalanche warnings in some areas of district Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban and Poonch. Mughal Road connecting Poonch and Shopian, Bani-Bhaderwah and Kishtwar-Kokernag-Anantnag roads have already been closed due to heavy snowfall at the passes. But last night about 2 to 3 feet snow has been reported on these roads.
Even several areas of Latti, Dudu, Basantgarh in Udhampur, Gool, Gulabgarh in Reasi, Loran, Sawjian, Dera Gali, Budhal in Poonch-Rajouri; Sarthal and parts of Bani and Machhedi experienced season’s first snowfall. The power supply also in many of these areas has been hit while restoration work was launched on war footing at some places, a senior PDD official said.
Meanwhile, Jammu City experienced heavy rain since last night while during the day a little improvement in the weather was witnessed. However, in the evening in some areas again light rain started. The water logging on the city roads affected the smooth movement of vehicles. But despite, bad weather heavy rush of people was observed in the markets due to Lohri festival.
A MeT spokesman said that Jammu experienced a minimum temperature of 7.5 deg C and maximum 12.5 deg C, Katra town a minimum temperature of 7.3 deg C and minimum 10.4 deg, Bhaderwah town a minimum temp of -0.4 deg C and maximum 2.2 deg C while Batote recorded minimum -0.8 deg C and maximum 3.6 deg C temp today. An improvement in weather has been predicted by Met official from tomorrow in the region.
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