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| Fresh spell of heavy snowfall throws life out of gear across Kashmir valley | | Surface, rail, air traffic suspended; Administration caught napping on snow clearance front | | Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR, Jan 22: Kashmir valley got cut off from rest of the world following yet another spell of heavy snowfall. Both the air and surface transport connecting Kashmir with the rest of the world got snapped following snow that started on Tuesday night.
Reports said that 294 kilometers long Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was closed for vehicular traffic after heavy to very heavy snowfall was recorded at various places en-route. While two feet snow got accumulated at Qazigund more than three feet snow has been recorded near the Jawahar Tunnel.
At the same time more than one dozen flights that operate from Srinagar International Airport got cancelled due to accumulation of snow on the runway and the parking bays. Continuous snowfall hampered the clearance of snow thus leading to the cancellation of flights. The 134 kilometers long Banihal-Srinagar-Budgam-Baramulla rail service also got cancelled due to the inclement weather.
Director Meteorological (MeT) Department, Sonam Lotus said that three feet of snow has been recorded at Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Kokernag by 5:30 PM. Lotus said that one feet of snow has been recorded in Srinagar and Qazigund. He said snowfall has been widespread across the Kashmir valley with heavy to very heavy snowfall being recorded.
A MeT official said that Srinagar recorded the day temperature of 2.4 degrees Celsius while as the minimum temperature was recorded as 0.2 degrees Celsius. He said the maximum temperature in Jammu was recorded as 14.7 degrees Celsius with the minimum temperature being recorded as 11 degrees Celsius.
Traffic officials here said that any decision to throw open the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway would be taken once the snow stops. They said that 20 heavy vehicles are stranded between Banihal and Udhampur while as unconfirmed reports said that hundreds of people are stranded at various places on the highway.
Reports reaching here said that majority of the areas falling in the higher reaches have received three to four feet of snow with the plains recording one feet or more than one feet of snow. They said that snow is yet to be cleared from majority of the areas adding that this has caused inconvenience to the people.
Majority of the areas in South and Central Kashmir have been rendered power less since the transmission lines and poles have been uprooted at many places in these two districts. Power was restored to the Srinagar city after more than 18 hours after it went off during the midnight. Still then many of the areas in the summer capital are without power with people claiming that government believes in rhetoric rather than action.
Reports said that 220 KV Kishenpore-Pampore transmission line has got snapped thus leading to an impression that there are more bleak days in store for the people of Kashmir valley. Continuous snowfall is hampering the work of restoration of electricity in some of the areas and it is expected that it may take few days for the Power Development Department officials to restore electricity to all areas of Kashmir valley.
The heavy snowfall forced people to stay indoors with majority of them preferring to stay away from their work. Delay in clearance of snow from the main roads made the matters worse with people alleging that snow is yet to be cleared from main roads in Srinagar and other districts of Kashmir valley.
Officials of Mechanical Engineering department were caught napping as far as snow clearance is concerned. Both men and machinery of the department that are expected to be on toes once snow comes down were found to be absent. This meant that snow continued to be on roads for hours together leading to numerous problems for people.
Authorities shifted dozens of families in the Waltengoo Naar area of Kulgam district to safer places after apprehensions that the area may be hit by a snow blizzard. It would be in place to mention here that more than 160 persons got killed in this and adjacent areas in February 2005 after being hit by a snow blizzard.
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