Agencies
After remaining shut for nearly 24 hours, the 294km Jammu-Srinagar national highway, the only surface link with rest of the country, was partially restored on Thursday evening. Hundreds of vehicles were left stranded on Wednesday afternoon after heavy rain and snow fall led to the closure of the highway. Facing a tough time, the commuters were forced to spent the night in the chilly conditions.
“No fresh vehicular movement, either from Srinagar or Jammu, was allowed on the highway on Thursday.
However, around 3pm, the stranded vehicles were cleared after road maintenance agencies carried out the snow and landslide clearance work at various locations between Ramban and Banihal sector,” said Ramban deputy superintendent of police (DSP)(traffic) Suresh Sharma.
“Around 650 light motor vehicles and 850 Valley-bound trucks were cleared. If weather continuous to hold, we may allow routine vehicular movement on the highway on Friday”, he added.
Meanwhile, around 2,000 vehicles, including LMVs and trucks remain stranded in Udhampur area since Wednesday.
The 86-km-long Mughal road, which connects south Kashmir’s Shopian with Rajouri and Poonch districts in Jammu, remained closed for the fourth day for vehicular traffic.
Shivering below freezing point
The higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir received fresh snowfall on Thursday while the plains witnessed intermittent rains as the minimum temperature settled below the freezing point at most places in the Valley and Ladakh region.
Snowfall has been recorded in the higher areas of the valley like Qazigund, Kokernag, Pahalgam and Mughal Road during the night, MeT officials said.
The valley and Ladakh region, except Srinagar, witnessed subzero night temperature last night.
Srinagar city recorded a low of 0.1 degrees Celsius last night, compared to the previous night’s 0.2 degrees Celsius, the MeT officials said. Qazigund -- the gateway town to the valley -recorded a low of minus 0.2 degrees Celsius while the nearby Kokernag town recorded a low of minus 1.2 degrees Celsius. Gulmarg, the coldest recorded place in the state, saw the mercury dipping to a minimum of minus 9.5 degrees Celsius last night which was colder than Leh and Kargil.
Leh recorded a minimum temperature of minus 8.9 degrees Celsius, while the mercury in the nearby Kargil town settled at a low of minus 9.3 degrees Celsius, the officials said. The MeT Office has said the weather is likely to improve from Thursday and would stay mainly dry over the next few days.
Snowfall continues in Himachal Pradesh
There were partly cloudy skies in Himachal Pradesh capital Shimla following the season’s first snowfall, with Kufri, Dalhousie shivering below the freezing point in the state.
The snowfall was experienced in Shimla, Kufri, Dalhousie and higher reaches of the state on Wednesday and Thursday, said Shimla Metrological Centre director Manmohan Singh. Shimla received 3.3 cm of snowfall between 5.30 pm to 8.30 am, he said, adding that the state capital got a total of 10.1 cm of snow.
The weather is likely to remain dry in most parts of the state in the coming days, Singh added. While the minimum temperature in Shimla remained 1.4 degrees Celsius, the lowest temperature was recorded in Keylong at minus 5 degrees Celsius.
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