Heavy snowfall cuts off Kashmir from country

Kashmir Valley was cut off from the rest of the country after huge snow fall blocked the Jammu-Srinagar highway on Monday.

This is the second and the heaviest snowfall of season.

According to the weather department officials, Frontier Kupwara has received around 5 feet of snow so far.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah on Monday asked the National Highway Authority and BEACONS to redouble their efforts in restoring Jammu-Srinagar National Highway for traffic to help pushing essential commodities and LPG in the Valley on priority basis.

The Chief Minister was receiving brief through video-conferencing from Jammu about the present snowfall situation and supply of essentials to the people.

Omar Abdullah also directed the administration to be quick in response to any emergency and put men and machinery at high alert to tackle weather vagaries and eventualities.

He emphasized on the need for snow clearance from roads and distribution of essentials to the people.

The continuous snowfall has badly hit the normal life in the Valley as all the major roads and links are blocked due to the snow fall.

“The traffic is very less as people avoiding movement due to the slippery road conditions.
Most of the roads and links are still blocked as continuous snow fall has affected the snow cleaning efforts,” Hasseb ul Rehman, Superintendent of traffic Police told TSI.

The authorities have issued avalanche warning for higher reaches of the Valley, particularly in the areas near Line of Control (LoC). The areas where avalanche warning has been issued are Khilanmarg, Uri, Chowkibal, Tangdar, Keran, Macchil and Gurez.

“People in these snow bound areas have been advised to avoid the movement near the hills and slopes for next 24-hours. They have also been asked to remove snow from the roof of their houses to avoid any possible casualty due to the collapse of roof by the weight of snow.” Amir Ali, Coordinator Natural Disaster Management Cell told TSI.

According to the reports, more than two thousand vehicles are stranded on the Jammu-Srinagar highway and the nonstop snowfall has hindered the snow cleaning work by the Border Roads Organisation.

“There are no passengers stranded on the Jammu-Srinagar highway as we had been very careful in the wake of the predictions of snowfall by the weather department. We had not allowed the passenger traffic on the road even a day before it snowed. But, definitely there are more than two thousand trucks loaded with essential commodities and oil tankers stuck on the way.” Inspector General (IG) Traffic, Hemant Kumar Lohia told TSI in Srinagar.

 “It is almost impossible to pave the way for the stranded traffic till the weather conditions improve,” the official added.

To avoid the possible shortage of the LPG in the Valley, the authorities have asked the Gas companies to fill only 5 kg instead of 14 kg gas into the cylinders.

“There is no shortage of essential commodities in the Valley. Our present LPG stock position is around 30,000 cylinders, but we have directed the Oil companies to fill only 5 Kg in the domestic cylinders, so that more people can be accommodated, till the highway reopens.” Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Dr. Asgar Hassan Samoon said on Sunday.

The good thing is that the power supply to the Valley has not been disrupted this time. Earlier the whole valley was fallen in darkness after the main transmission wires had fallen down due to the snowfall on Jan 6.