Life comes to standstill in Kashmir as highways, roads closed, flights delayed due to heavy snowfall

Srinagar: Jammu-Srinagar national highway, the surface link connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of India, has remained closed on Thursday due to landslides, mudslides and shooting stones at several places along the 270-km stretch.

On the other hand, other key roads like Mughal road, which connects Shopian with Poonch-Rajouri districts, Srinagar-Leh highway and Sinthan road, connecting Anantnag and Kishtwar districts and Srinagar-Leh road also remained closed due to heavy snowfall.

“Highway remains closed for vehicular movement due to landslides/mudslides and shooting stones at several places. Authorities were clearing snow accumulations at the Jawahar tunnel.  All efforts are underway to restore the traffic,” a traffic official said

Meanwhile, low visibility continues to cause a delay in flight operations in the Srinagar airport that led to delay in all flights.

“All flights at Srinagar Airport are delayed due to low visibility. The operations will commence on weather improvement,” AAI said in a tweeted.

The flight operations in the valley have been badly hampered due to low visibility from the last two days.

On the other hand, mercury has taken a swift dip at most of the places in Kashmir and Ladakh.

Kashmir valley received more snowfall overnight while minimum temperatures saw a dip at most places.

According to meteorological department officials Srinagar recorded rain and snowfall of 12.9mm in the last 24 hours.

Gulmarg, which had nearly 3ft of fresh snowfall in the last two days, recorded a low of minus 3.4°C against.  While Pahalgam, the famous tourist resort had 1-ft of a fresh snowfall, recorded a low of minus 0.8°C.

Bandipora-Gurez road remained closed with over 2.0ft at Razdan top, 2ft at Tulail and 1.5ft at Dawar. Other border areas like Machil, Karna and Keran roads have been closed as higher reaches of Kupwara received 2-4ft snow. 

Ladakh’s Leh recorded a low of minus 7.6°C Kargil recorded a minimum of minus 7.6°C temperatures.

Met has forecasted more snow in Kashmir and Ladakh in the next 24 hours and has also issued an orange alert and avalanche warning.

 “Expect another (heavy to very heavy) spell during January 7-8th,” he said, adding, “People are once again requested not to venture in avalanche prone area as our data shows that most avalanches are triggered during Intense heavy snowfall." Advisory reads.