Kashmir remains cut off ;Snow shuts highway, airport

Srinagar, Jan 15:  The Kashmir valley remained cut off from the rest of the world as snowfall disrupted air and road traffic on Wednesday.

While plains received light snowfall, the higher reaches of the valley, Jammu and Ladakh regions experienced heavy snowfall on Wednesday.

Srinagar-Jammu National Highway continues to remain closed for traffic due to shooting stones and landslides. As per the Traffic Control Room, Srinagar, traffic was suspended due to the landslides and slippery condition on the road.

“It is constantly snowing at Qazigund. The road is slippery, due to which the traffic was not allowed today as well,” an official of the traffic department said.

Traffic Control Room, Ramban, said fresh landslides and shooting stones occurred at Panthal, Digdol, Iron Stand and Monkey Stand on Wednesday.

“The road clearance is underway. But fresh landslides and shooting stones were reported at different places on Wednesday.   No traffic was allowed from Udhampur to Srinagar as the road is too slippery,” an official said.

As many as 5000 vehicles are stranded between Udhampur and Ramban since Tuesday.

Snowfall forced the cancellation of all the 27 flights scheduled for Wednesday. “The visibility at runway was very poor due to which all the 27 flights were cancelled on Wednesday,” an official at Srinagar Airport said.

Train services were also affected as only two out of 20 trains could run on Wednesday. “The train service almost remained closed today. We could only run two trains from Budgam to Anantnag and Anantnag to Budgam,” said Vikramjit, one of the controllers.  

Met Department Srinagar said Qazigund and Pahalgam received 2.5 cm snow each while Kokernag Gulmarg  and Kupwara received  0.5 cm, 14 cm and 1.5 cm of snowfall respectively.

Met has forecast scattered snowfall across the valley till January 18. “From January 18 to 20, there will be snowfall or rains at isolated places in the Kashmir valley,” a Met official said.

 Meanwhile, many areas in Kashmir are still out of bounds as snow clearance is yet to take off.  “There has been no snow clearance on Kupwara- Lolab road due to which people are suffering immensely.  Locals can’t move out and any medical emergency under such circumstances can prove fatal,” said Firdous Ahmad a local from Kupwara.