Leh NH, Mughal Road remain closed; hundreds of vehicles stranded

Sonamarg tourist resort experiences fresh snowfall on Tuesday. -Excelsior/Shakeel
Sonamarg tourist resort experiences fresh snowfall on Tuesday. -Excelsior/Shakeel

Gopal Sharma
JAMMU/SRINAGAR, Nov 13: The temperature across J&K state has considerably dipped due to continuous rain and snowfall at many places for the last two days while Srinagar-Leh National Highway and Mughal Road remained closed for the second consecutive day due to snowfall and slippery road conditions while the Police and NDRF/SDRF teams managed to trace some more parts of the missing truck in Battery Chashma landslides near Ramban, where the three truckers were still missing.
The Meteorological Department has forecast widespread snowfall during the next 48 hours in Kashmir which could affect traffic movement on highways and roads to far-flung and remote areas as well. A MeT department official said that people undertaking journey on the highway and other remote areas are requested to contact Traffic Control Units (TCUs) before starting their journey.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Traffic Rural (Srinagar), Muzaffar Ahmad Shah, said that there is prediction for more snowfall on the Srinagar-Leh highway, particularly between Sonamarg in district Ganderbal and Meenmarg, including Zojila Pass. He said that the resumption of traffic on the highway will depend upon the snowfall.
Shah said that Border Roads Organization (BRO) started clearing the highway on either side of Zojila pass but due to fresh snowfall the clearance operation was stopped.
Meanwhile, hundreds of vehicles, including trucks loaded with essentials and oil tankers, left different parts of Jammu region for Kashmir valley this morning. However, no traffic will be allowed from Srinagar to Jammu as only one-way traffic will continue to ply on the highway to avoid traffic jam and accidents, he added.
Sources said that dozens of far-flung and remote villages near the Line of Control (LoC), including border town of Keran and Machil, were today cut off from their respective district headquarters due to slippery road conditions following fresh snowfall in North Kashmir.
The road between Kupwara to border town of Keran was closed due to fresh snowfall since early this morning. The road had become slippery and no traffic movement was allowed to avoid any accident.
Authorities also suspended traffic movement on Bandipora-Gurez road following fresh snowfall at Razdan Pass.
An official said that the traffic movement was suspended as a ‘precautionary measure’ as there was moderate snowfall going on at Razdan Pass since Tuesday morning.
“Due to the moderate snowfall the Bandipora-Gurez has become slippery and to avoid any untoward incident, all sorts of vehicular movement on the road has been suspended, ” he said.
He said that it was also snowing in Dawar, Kanzalwan, Bagtore and Tulail areas of Bandipora since this morning. The fresh snowfall at higher reaches and rain in plains, resulted into further dip in the day temperature in Kashmir valley.
The people continued to shiver in border town of Kargil, which was the coldest place in the region at minus 6 degree Celsius , followed by Leh, where the mercury dipped and settled at minus 5 degree Celsius.
Meanwhile, due to rain and snowfall in the higher reaches of Poonch and Rajouri besides parts of Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban, the temperature in Jammu region has further dipped. At least seven degree fall in Jammu’s day temperature has been registered during past 48 hours. It was drizzling in plain areas of Jammu region since this afternoon and the cold wave has gripped the other plain areas of Samba and Kathua.
Reports from Bhaderwah, Doda, Kishtwar and Poonch said that higher reaches have witnessed fresh snowfall while it was raining intermittently. It said although there was light rain in the Ramban and Udhampur sectors of National Highway since this afternoon, yet the highway was clear for one way traffic till late this evening.
Meanwhile, SSP Ramban, said that search operation by the joint team of Police, SDRF/NDRF and some locals with the Army assistance continued about 800 meters down the highway at Battery Chashma land sliding zone where a truck along with three persons went missing on Nov 5. She said a JCB has been dropped down into the deep nallah from a location about 4 kms away near Digdol. The operation was continued.
Today, the team after long and hard efforts managed to trace the rear portion of the Chasis along with tube, connecting both the rear tyres of the truck. She said thousands of tons of boulders/ Malwa has come down with slides and it is very difficult to trace the missing persons including driver, cleaner and driver’s minor son. The truck owner and their relatives continue to stay there and join the team every day till late evening.
Meanwhile, SSP Poonch, Rajiv Pandey said that Mughal Road continued to remain closed on the second consecutive day today. He said there are reports of heavy fresh snowfall at Pir ki Gali and Poshana area of Pir Panjal today as it was raining since morning. He said that this road has been officially closed up to November 14 and if the snowfall continued tomorrow, it is unlikely to be cleared by November 15. He said the district Administration was monitoring the weather situation along this highway.

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