Kashmir Valley remains cut off by snow

The Kashmir Valley remained cut off from rest of the country for the second consecutive day today due to snowfall as the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway could not be restored for traffic, even as air-traffic was restored as the weather improved here.

"The national highway is still closed for traffic. No fresh traffic would be allowed to ply on the highway today," a traffic department official said.

Intermittent snowfall in Qazigund-Banihal stretch of the nearly 300-km long highway is hampering the efforts to restore traffic, he said, adding, "Once the weather improves, the operation will be launched and the first priority will be given to stranded vehicles to reach their destination." 

The snowfall, which began on Monday, also affected air-traffic at Srinagar airport.

Only one aeroplane was able to land at the airport yesterday but even that could not then take-off due to bad weather. All other flights had to be cancelled which led many passengers stranded, Director, Airport Authority of India (AAI), Srinagar Airport, Sharad Kumar told PTI.

Meanwhile, as the weather improved in Srinagar, air-traffic was restored.

"The air-traffic was restored today as the runway was cleared off the snow following improvement in weather," Kumar said, adding flight operations went on normally following the improvement in weather. Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department here said the weather would improve from tomorrow.

"The weather will improve from tomorrow. In fact, it could improve from this evening only and it would stay as such till January 21. From January 22 to 26 evening or 27 morning, there is possibility of another spell of rains or snow as the region will be hit by a fresh western disturbance," a MeT official said. Since Tuesday, Srinagar recorded nine cm of snowfall, while the minimum temperature dropped to minus 2.5 degrees Celsius from the previous night's minus 1.9 degrees Celsius.