Bad weather hits transport, normal life in JK

Jammu, Jan 6: Over 1000 vehicles, including 64 carrying passengers towards the summer capital here, were stranded on the 300-km-long Jammu-Srinagar National Highway today as the road communication between the two regions of Jammu and Kashmir remained suspended due to heavy snowfall.

Meanwhile, all the airlines destined to Srinagar remained grounded at Jammu due to bad weather conditions, sources at the airport here informed.

The highway was closed due to heavy snowfall en route Srinagar last evening. ''It was snowing heavily from Jawahar Tunnel onwards,'' SSP National Highway Danish Rana told the sources.

Continuous rains and snowfall since yesterday had also made the entire highway slippery, which forced the authorities to suspend vehicular movement between Jammu and Srinagar.

''We had tried to move the stranded vehicles this morning but suspended the same again as the road was very slippery and dangerous for vehicular movement,'' the traffic officer said.

Over a thousand trucks carrying essential commodities towards the Kashmir valley were stranded at different places on the National Highway.

Looking at the cloudy weather, the officer said it would rather be difficult to predict if the traffic on the highway could be resumed by the evening.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had put in service the heavy machinery to clear off the road but due to bad weather the highway was unlikely to be cleared for road traffic, Mr Rana said, asserting, ''We want to move the stranded vehicles as early as possible but the resumption of vehicular movement on the national highway depends upon the clear weather condition.''

Trikuta hills of one of the world's most revered pilgrim destination received a fresh snowfall, although the Patni Top hill resort on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, about 85 km from here rejuvenated with an increased influx of tourists. There was no difference in the number of pilgrims reaching the holy cave shrine to pay obeisance, sources said.

Since Friday night, the entire state was gripped in severe cold conditions due to the intermittent rainfall in the plains and snowfall on the upper reaches of the Himalayan region.

Normal life was affected due to the freezing northern-eastern winds and completely cloudy weather that pushed the mercury down below 8 degree Celsius at the winter capital city.

As per reports, it was snowing on the upper Himalayan reaches in Udhampur, Doda, Ramban, Rajouri and Poonch districts, while the low lying areas experienced intermittent showers.

UNI