Rains, snow in valley parts

Srinagar, Dec 13: Light rain and snow occurred in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday as the weather office has forecast an improvement in weather.

Dir MeT, Sonum Lotus, as per reports, said that there is no forecast of rain or snow in the next ten days.

“We are predicting a dry spell from Thursday evening till next one week to ten days. There can be light snowfall in higher reaches as well but overall the weather in these days would remain almost dry,” he added.

He further informed that the higher reaches in Southern Kashmir including Anantnag areas, Shopian and others received a fresh snowfall.

The plains also received light snowfall since Wednesday evening, bringing the temperature further down.

An official in MeT department said that the night temperature across the Valley would go further down while as the day temperature would likely increase from tomorrow or in upcoming days.

The Srinagar-Jammu highway continued to remain closed for the second consecutive day due to fresh snowfall in Banihal and other areas although the stranded vehicles, around 3000 of them, were cleared by the end of the day.

The Mughal road, connecting Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region, remained closed for the fourth day due to fresh snowfall, particularly at Pir-ki-Gali, a traffic police official said.

He said the road has also become very slippery as the snow had accumulated due to below freeing temperature.

Traffic had remained suspended since Wednesday afternoon on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway due to snowfall and landslides, he said.

It snowed a lot on both sides of the Jawahar tunnel. Reports of snowfall were also received from Qazigund, Shaitan Nallah and Banihal throughout the night while it was raining between Ramban and Ramsu.

He said the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), responsible for the maintenance of the highway, pressed into service sophisticated machines and men to clear the highway.

He said some persons were injured yesterday when few vehicles skidded off the road due to slippery conditions. The accidents were non-fatal, he said.

Large number of vehicles, including trucks and oil tankers, are stranded on both sides of the Gali, official sources said, adding that last month, over 200 passengers and truckers were rescued after they got struck on the road due to snow.

It was heavily snowing on the historic road at several places since last night. The road remained closed for six winter months due to heavy snowfall.

However, the authorities have already announced to construct a tunnel to make it an all weather road.