Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Jan 4: With the washing away of a portion of Jammu-Srinagar National Highway near Chenani, the Highway has been closed for the Heavy Mortar Vehicles (HMVs) and only Light Mortar Vehicles (LMVs) will be allowed to ply on the Highway till it is restored.
IGP Traffic, Muneer Ahmad Khan, told Excelsior that no fresh LMVs will be allowed to ply on the National Highway till further orders as the Border Roads Organization (BRO) is working for the restoration of the 500 metres portion of the Highway that was washed away yesterday.
He said that today 1100 LMVs were allowed to ply on the Highway from Srinagar to Jammu and over 800 load carriers that were stranded on the Highway were allowed to ply towards Jammu. He said that these load carriers were stranded in Srinagar for past 5 days.
Khan said that the LMVs will be allowed to ply from Jammu to Srinagar tomorrow and no fresh HMVs will be allowed to ply on the highway till the washed away portion at Chenani is restored.
The IGP said that the BRO is working on the 500 metre stretch of the Highway that was washed away yesterday. He said that last night the BRO managed to make diversion and in the morning the traffic was restored on the portion of the highway.
Khan said that the traffic on the Highway was stopped this evening and BRO have started working on the washed away portion of the highway again. They will work till morning so that vehicles will be allowed to ply on the highway in the morning.
The IGP said that once the portion of the highway will be restored then only the HMVs will be allowed on the highway.
The highway was re-opened yesterday for traffic after remaining closed for three days due to heavy snowfall at several places, including Jawahar tunnel, Banihal and Patnitop areas.
In the meantime, there was still no respite from the intense cold as chilly winds and cloudy weather continued in Kashmir and Ladakh region today.
The Leh was the coldest place in the division with mercury plunging to minus 14.7 degree Celsius.
The Weatherman said that there will be no improvement in the cold weather conditions in Kashmir and Ladakh divisions for next 24 hours.
A MET official said that weather will remain mainly dry in Kashmir valley. However, there could be light rain or snow at isolated places in the higher reaches.
Parts of water bodies including Dal lake were frozen today due to subzero temperatures.
A MET Department official said that minimum temperature in Srinagar was recorded at minus 1.6 degree Celsius. The day temperature has also dropped because of cloudy weather and icy cold winds and it stayed at 3.9 degree Celsius.
The Ski resort of Gulmarg was freezing at minus 11 degree Celsius. Pahalgam in South Kashmir recorded minus 7.7 degree Celsius, Kokernag minus 6.3 degree Celsius, Qazigund minus 3.8 degree Celsius and Kupwara minus 0.8 degree Celsius. And day temperatures at Pahalgam, Kokernag, Qazigund and Kupwara stayed at minus 0.4 degree Celsius, minus 0.7 degree Celsius, 2 degree Celsius and 3.5 degree Celsius respectively.
The official said that there was a slight drop in the minimum temperature at Leh where it was minus 14.7 degree against yesterday’s minus 14.2 degree while at Kargil it was minus 13 degree, witnessing an improvement of about seven notches.
The maximum temperature in the summer capital, Jammu stayed at 18.3 degree Celsius and minimum stayed at 5.5 degree Celsius.
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