Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Oct 25: Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was closed this evening for traffic due to shooting stones and slides while Srinagar-Leh highway, Mughal road and other border roads were closed due to heavy snowfall on mountain passes.
A traffic official told Excelsior that the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was closed for traffic this evening due to shooting stones and mudslides caused due to heavy rains.
“There were shooting stones at Gangroo and Magarkote on the National Highway so we had to stop the traffic at Banihal and Qazigund. The shooting stones and slides have been caused due to heavy rains since yesterday in the area”, an official of Traffic Police said.
He said that the traffic on the highway was stopped at Qazigund at around 6 p.m. He said that there are around 200 Jammu bound vehicles mostly trucks stranded on the National Highway at Qazigund due to the closure of the Highway. “At Udhampur there are 100 and at Ramban 35 Srinagar bound and at Banihal 35 Jammu bound vehicles including trucks and passenger vehicles stranded due to closure of the highway”, he said.
The official said that the Border Roads Organization (BRO) will clear the landslines and shooting stones from the highway in the morning and if weather improves, the traffic will be restored in the morning.
The officials said that Mughal road and Srinagar-Leh National Highway were closed last night due to snowfall at Pir Ki Gali and Zojila respectively. The Gurez and Keran road have also been closed due to heavy snowfall on the mountain passes.
The Zojila pass along Srinagar-Leh Highway has received around 2 feet snowfall and Pir Ki Gali on Mughal road around one feet snow. The roads were closed due to slippery road conditions and accumulation of snow.
The snowfall continued in Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Sonamarg, Pir Ki Gali, Gurez, Macchil, Keran and Tanghdar for second day today. Six inch snow has accumulated in Gulmarg, one and half feet in Afarwat and Kongdoori.
The temperature in Gulmarg has nosedived since the first snowfall yesterday. It was recorded at minus 3 degree Celsius and the maximum day temperature was recorded at 0.6 degree Celsius.
Reports said that large number of tourists are visiting Gulmarg to see the snowfall.
The snowfall also continued along 400 kilometer long LoC in Kashmir valley, from Gulmarg to Gurez today. There was accumulation of 2-3 feet snow along LoC at Gulmarg, Tanghdar, Keran, Macchil and Gurez.
The rains continued to lash Kashmir valley today bringing down the temperature further. Srinagar received 4.7 millimeters of rain from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. today. Qazigund recorded 6 millimeters of rainfall, Kokernag 5.7 m.m. The border district of Kupwara recorded 15.1 millimeters of rain.
The maximum day temperature in Srinagar was recorded at 8.8 Degree Celsius and yesterday it was 10 degrees Celsius.
A MeT official said that freak weather will continue till Tuesday morning and there will be improvement in weather in the afternoon. He said that the temperature in Kashmir will dip further tomorrow due to continued snowfall and rains.
Our Jammu correspondent adds: life was affected in Jammu region due to intermittent rains during the past 24 hours, resulting into considerable cold in the summer capital.
Due to light to moderate rains in parts of Jammu region since last evening Jammu observed a sharp fall (6 degree) in day temperature.
According to a MeT spokesperson, in last 24 hours, Jammu recorded 2.0 mm rainfall, Banihal 19.8 mm, Batote 16.6 mm, Katra 3.7 mm and Bhaderwah 21.4 mm.
He further said that Jammu today recorded minimum day temperature of 16.4 degree Celsius and a maximum of 20.2 degree Celsius.
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