Day 2: Srinagar, south Kashmir receive more snow than Gulmarg; Kashmir remains cut-off; life thrown out of gear

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Kashmir People walks during first snowfall of 2021 in Srinagar Umar Ganie 2 scaled
FILE PHOTO

Srinagar: Kashmir valley continued to receive moderate to heavy snowfall between the intervening night of Sunday and Monday with people in plains in north, central and south Kashmir districts waking up to around two, four, and eight inches of fresh snow this morning respectively.

As such, air and road traffic continues to remain disrupted due to the weather disruption that has thrown normal life out of gear for the second consecutive day. 

From Sunday morning, the valley’s plains as well as higher reaches received year’s first snowfall that relatively improved the temperature.

Srinagar, the summer capital of the J&K, received snowfall of 5.2 inches in the last 24 hours till 8:30 am Monday , a MeT official said.

Qazigund, the gateway town of Valley, recorded snowfall of 20 inches (1.6 feet) while Pahalgam, the famous tourist destination, and Kokernag recording 8.26 inches and 12.5 inches respectively.

Interestingly, Gulmarg, the famous skiing resort, accumulated only 1.5 inch of fresh snowfall in the last 24 hours while Kupwara recorded 1.37 inch of snowfall. Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district received almost the same snow depth as Srinagar even as its higher reaches saw around 9 inches of fresh snow.

Most interior lanes are clogged with snow even as the divisional administration pressed men and machinery into service in the early hours of the day to clear snow from the roads. So far reports said that the snow has been cleared from the most important roads even as work is in progress to clear the other roads.

Officials said that all flights at Srinagar airport have been deferred till 11:30 am due to low visibility. No flight could take off or arrive at the airport yesterday, they said.

“All flights scheduled today from Srinagar have been delayed or rescheduled due to bad weather,” the official said.

They said that the Jammu-Srinagar highway, Srinagar-Leh Highway and Mughal road, connecting Shopian and Poonch districts also remained closed due to the snowfall.

“Currently the traffic has not been allowed on highway and the snow clearance work is going on. Snow has accumulated at multiple spots on the highway and the administration has presses men and machinery to clear the snow,” an official from the Traffic Control Room said. 

Meanwhile, snowfall has affected impacted the power supply across the valley.

The Kashmir Monitor got reports from many areas of North and South Kashmir where the power supply has been snapped due to snowfall.

“Faults in power supply have been restored at most of the places while KPDCL ground staff is working on remaining points. Best efforts being made. Citizen cooperation solicited to avoid overload,” Srinagar district administration said in a tweet on its official handle this morning.  

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