The Jammu-Srinagar national highway was closed for traffic on Saturday owing to landslides and fresh snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir.
Officials said that the 270-km road has been blocked at multiple places. “The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway is closed for vehicular movement due to landslides, shooting stones at many places on the highway, and snow accumulation around the Navyug Tunnel,” said the traffic police.
There were fresh rains and snowfall in many parts of the union territory during the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. Earlier rains were also witnessed on Friday.
The Director, of the meteorological center of J&K, Sonam Lotus said that there are chances that widespread light to moderate rain and snow will continue on Saturday.
“There weather is expected to remain partly cloudy till March 1 and cloudy with possibility of light rain/snow (over higher reaches) during March 2-3,” he said.
The MeT center in an update in the morning said that 16 cm of snow was recorded in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam resort and 15.2 cm in north Kashmir’s Gulmarg resort in the past 24 hours till 8.30 on Saturday morning. Jammu’s Banihal saw 12 cm snowfall.
Qazigund, the gateway into Kashmir from Jammu, witnessed a maximum of 28.2 mm rains while it was 37.6 mm in Banihal, the gateway into Jammu from Kashmir.
On Wednesday, there was widespread snowfall in Kashmir and rains in Jammu which caused large-scale disruptions, including blocking the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, suspending flights at Srinagar Airport, halting train services between Banihal and Baramulla, and forcing the authorities to cancel examinations. Since then, mild rains have continued intermittently.
Meanwhile, Overnight rains and heavy snowfall triggered fresh landslides in the Ramban district and blocked the 270-km-long Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Saturday, said officials. “The Jammu-Srinagar national highway is closed for vehicular movement due to landslides, shooting stones at many places, and snow accumulation around the Navyug Tunnel,” said SSP, traffic, national highway, Shabir Malik.
However, the traffic was restored on the national highway in the evening for the one-way traffic of stranded vehicles.
“The vehicles stranded in Ramban are being allowed to move towards Kashmir after the road was cleared of the landslides, “ said an official of the traffic department.
He also informed that nearly 700 trucks carrying essentials to the Valley had been left stranded between Batote and Ramban.
“The incessant rains have triggered landslides at many places in Ramban and shooting stones are posing a risk to the drivers. As a result, the traffic movement has been stopped,” he said.
The SSP informed that keeping in view weather conditions and stranded vehicles, no fresh traffic movement shall be allowed on Sunday.
“We will clear the stranded vehicles first after the affected stretches on the highway are restored and shooting stones stop falling off the hills in the vulnerable areas,” said Malik.
A truck driver suffered injuries when he was hit by a shooting stone near Cafeteria Morh in Ramban on Saturday morning.
“He has suffered injuries and has been hospitalised. His condition is said to be stable,” said a police officer. The injured truck driver has been identified as Waseem Ahmed, a resident of Baramulla.
Temperatures dropped to below zero in a few weather stations in Kashmir. The lowest night temperature on Saturday in Kashmir was recorded in the northern ski resort of Gulmarg, where the mercury dropped to -7.5°C. The resort of Pahalgam in south Kashmir recorded -0.8°C. Mercury settled at 1.8°C in the summer capital Srinagar during the night, while it was -0.2°C in south Kashmir’s Qazigund, the gateway into Kashmir from Jammu.
The day temperatures on Friday dropped considerably. Gulmarg recorded a lowest of -0.5°C while Srinagar saw the highest 6.7°C, a departure of 4.4 degrees from the normal.
