Kashmir remains cut from outer world on 4th consecutive day with no surface or aerial communication
Srinagar: While as the weather conditions in Kashmir have improved with Srinagar experiencing a brief spell of sunshine on Wednesday, the troubles that the populace is face to face with continued in most of the Valley areas.
Kashmir remained cut off from the rest of the world for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday as the Srinagar-Jammu highway remained blocked and air traffic suspended due to heavy snowfall.
The highway remained blocked due to snow accumulation at Jawahar Tunnel and landslides, mudslides and shooting stones at Samroli, Magarkot, Panthyal, Marog, Cafeteria mor, Dhalwas, Nashri, officials said, adding, all efforts are being made to clear the impacted stretches for traffic movement.
Around 4500 vehicles, mainly carrying supplies to the valley as well as passenger vehicles are stranded en route.
Flight operations at the Srinagar airport remained suspended for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday due to poor visibility, officials said.
They said all the flights were cancelled for the day.
“We had 28 arriving flights and 28 outgoing flights and all of them were cancelled,” they said.
Snow clearance operations began at the airport in the morning and the runway was made operational later in the afternoon, the officials said.
However, owing to poor visibility, no flight operations could be conducted, they added.
The officials said the resumption of flight operations on Thursday will depend on the visibility.
Air traffic was cancelled on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday due to heavy snowfall across the valley.
The snowfall stopped after four days around Wednesday afternoon and the MeT office has said the weather is likely to remain mainly dry till January 14.
Meanwhile, normal life remained crippled in Kashmir Valley even as there are reports of snowfall causing damage to a few structures in the Valley. Most lanes are still impassable for driving across the Valley while main roads are being cleared, reports said. Snow clearance machines have been pressed to clear main roads, sources said.
Srinagar received 34.7cm of snowfall in the last 24 hours till 0830 hours while Qazigund recorded 33.7cm during the time; Pahalgam and Kokernag, also in south Kashmir, recorded 29.0 and 17cm of fresh snowfall respectively, the MeT official said.
Gulmarg recorded accumulation of 28cm of fresh snowfall while Kupwara recorded 22cm of snowfall; Ganderbal and Budgam districts received almost the same snow depth as Srinagar even as higher reaches accumulated more snow.
The snowfall has resulted into the disruption of power and water supply and also severe disruptions in milk and vegetable supplies to parts of Srinagar and elsewhere.
Most of the areas in Kashmir are groping in darkness as the power supply has not been restored while as some areas are facing acute water supply crisis.
The road clearance too has been an issue as most of the areas, connected huge populations with Tehsil headquarters remain uncleared in rural Kashmir.
Even in Srinagar, the interior roads still have not been cleared forcing people to stay indoors.
Meanwhile, Srinagar recorded a low of minus 0.9°C while mercury settled at minus 1.2°C in Pahalgam, minus 3.5°C in Gulmarg, minus 0.2°C in Qazigund, minus 0.7°C in Kupwara while Kokernag recorded a low of minus 1.0°C, the official said.
