Srinagar records coldest night of season
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Dec 24: The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was once again closed for traffic due to fresh landslide near Chanderkot in Ramban area today.
Official sources said that it was clear weather today. Suddenly, a major landslide blocked the busy highway at village Boom near Chanderkot. The road widening activity by the Gammon India Limited was in progress. They reportedly have sub-let the work to local contractor, having no experience of constructing such highways.
Due to closure of the highway, over 4,000 vehicles, mainly trucks moving from Kashmir to Jammu and Delhi have got stranded at different places enroute the highway. Men and machinery are at work to clear the highway but the operation was halted at several intervals due to falling of rocks/ boulders from the mountain top.
Vehicular traffic on the highway was suspended last Friday night after a portion of the road was washed away due to landslides at Digdol and was reopened for traffic on Sunday.
IG Traffic Alok Kumar has appealed to people to strictly follow the advisory being issued by the Traffic department on daily basis. He appealed the road users to contact Traffic Control Units (TCUs) at Srinagar, Jammu and Ramban before starting their journey on this highway.
Kumar further said that movement of heavy vehicles came to halt at Boom in Chanderkot area after fresh landslide between 12 noon and 12.30 pm. The stranded trucks on that side of the Jawahar Tunnel were moving towards Jammu. Many vehicles were cleared during last night and morning time. The movement of LMV had been stopped today. But suddenly, the highway blockade created trouble.
“At least three machines have been pressed into service. We are expecting the clearance of road around midnight. But frequent falling of rocks/ shooting stones are hampering the clearance operation,” the IG Traffic added.
Meanwhile, historic Mughal Road, linking Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region, remained closed for the past fortnight due to accumulation of snowfall and slippery road conditions while Srinagar-Kargil-Leh highway was still closed due to heavy snowfall at Zojilla Pass.
Meanwhile, cold wave continued to grip the entire Jammu region. There has been significant fall in Jammu’s day temperature from 17.6 degree Celsius to 13.7 Deg C during past 24 hours while night temperature has shown improvement by nearly two notches.
A MeT spokesman said that it will be cloudy and foggy weather condition in Jammu region during next 24 hours while in Kashmir the sky will be almost clear. He said Katra town registered a maximum temperature of 14.4 Deg C and minimum 4.4 deg C, Bhaderwah maximum 11.5 deg C and minus 2.5 deg C while Batote had maximum 11.7 deg C and minimum minus one degree C temperature today.
Due to fog and poor visibility a few morning flights were delayed but operations during the day remain almost normal. Several trains were also delayed by one to three hours during last 24 hours in the region. The chopper service however, remained almost normal at Katra Mata Vaishnodevi.
Meanwhile, Kashmir was reeling under intense cold conditions with Srinagar experiencing the coldest night of the season so far.
MeT spokesman said the minimum temperature across Kashmir and Ladakh remained several degrees below the freezing point on Tuesday owing to clear sky. He said Srinagar recorded the coldest night of the season so far as the minimum temperature in the city settled at minus 4 degrees Celsius last night – over four degrees down from 0.2 degree Celsius the previous night, leading to freezing of water supply lines at several places. The city had recorded the same minimum temperature on December 8.
The ski-resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded the low of minus 10.2 degrees Celsius last night – down from the previous night’s minus 8.5 degrees Celsius, he said.
The night temperature at Pahalgam resort in south Kashmir, settled at a low of minus 10.4 degrees Celsius as against minus 10.8 degrees Celsius on Monday, he added.
Pahalgam, in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district was the coldest recorded place in the Valley, he said.
Qazigund recorded a low of minus 7.8 degrees Celsius, a decrease of nearly 10 degrees from Monday, Kokernag town a low of minus 6 degrees Celsius, while Kupwara in north registered the minimum of minus 4.5 degrees Celsius, the official said.
He said Leh town in Ladakh recorded a low of minus 16.7 degrees Celsius – seven degrees down from minus 9.9 degrees Celsius on the previous night while the minimum temperature in Drass settled at minus 26.7 degrees Celsius compared to minus 21.6 degrees Celsius the other night, the official added.
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