Coldest night of season in Srinagar
Fayaz Bukhari/Govind Sharma
Srinagar/JAMMU, Dec 25: After remaining closed for several hours, the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was reopened this morning for one-way traffic but due to intermittent incidents of shooting stones in Chanderkot area, the vehicular traffic was affected on the highway.
Official sources said that one way traffic from Srinagar to Jammu resumed today at about 8 am after remaining suspended for about 20 hours. They said the National Highway was closed for traffic yesterday at about 12 noon when a sudden major landslide blocked the busy highway at village Boom near Chanderkot.
“Due to closure of the highway, over 4,000 vehicles, mainly trucks moving from Kashmir to Jammu and Delhi had got stranded at different places enroute the highway but most of these vehicles were cleared today,” they added.
A senior Traffic police official said that only stranded vehicles from Srinagar to Jammu were allowed to move after re-opening of the road this afternoon but intermittent fall of shooting stones in the day and also late in the evening at Thanari area between Chanderkot and Ramban, a traffic jam like situation resulted on the National Highway several times. Traffic has to suspended for about 30 to 40 minutes due to fall of shooting stones on the highway.
He said still there were about 4000 vehicles including LMVs and heavy vehicles in the 20 kilometre stretch of the National Highway between Ramban and Ramsoo due to congestion of traffic. “Had there been no shooting stone incidents, all these vehicles would have been cleared,” he added.
Meanwhile, Kashmir reeled under severe cold conditions with temperatures plummeting several notches below zero degree Celsius as Srinagar experienced the coldest night of the season so far making parts of Dal lake to freeze.
A MeT Department official said that the minimum temperature across Kashmir remained several degrees below the freezing point today owing to clear sky.
Srinagar recorded the coldest night of the season so far as the minimum temperature settled at minus 4.3 degrees Celsius last night, 0.3 degrees down from the previous night’s minus 4.0 degrees Celsius, leading to freezing of water supply lines at several places.
Parts of Dal lake and other water bodies were also frozen this morning due to intense cold weather conditions. The day temperature of Srinagar, however, settled 8.9 degree Celsius due to Sun shine. The ski-resort of Gulmarg in North Kashmir recorded a low of minus 9.0 degrees Celsius last night up from the previous night’s minus 10.2 degrees Celsius.
The night temperature at Pahalgam resort settled at a low of minus 11.4 degrees Celsius as against minus 10.4 degrees Celsius yesterday. The day temperature of the resort settled at 5.3 degree Celsius. Qazigund in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 9.4 degrees Celsius, a decrease of nearly two degrees from minus 7.8 degrees Celsius from the previous night. The day temperature settled at 9.0 degree Celsius.
Kokernag town, also in the south, recorded a low of minus 6.7 degrees Celsius, while Kupwara in the north, registered the minimum of minus 5.6, degrees Celsius. The day temperatures at these places was 5.4 degree Celsius and 8.9 degree Celsius respectively.
Leh town recorded a low of minus 17.8 degrees Celsius, one degree down from minus 16.7 degrees Celsius on the previous night. The day temperature was recorded at 0.0 degree Celsius. Drass recorded maximum of minus 12.3 degree Celsius and minimum of minus 29.0 degree Celsius.
The day temperature of Jammu was recorded at 11.1 degree Celsius, about 10 degrees below normal while minimum settled at 6.8 degree Celsius, 1.4 degree below normal. Batote had maximum of 12.7 degree Celsius and minimum of minus 1.4 degree Celsius. Katra witnessed maximum of 10.5 degree Celsius and minimum of 4.2 degree Celsius. Bhaderwah recorded maximum of 12.6 and minimum of minus 2.1 degree Celsius.
The MeT department has forecast mainly dry weather for the week ahead. Kashmir is currently under the grip of Chillai-Kalan, the 40-day harshest period of winter when the chances of snowfall are most frequent and maximum and the temperature drops considerably.
Meanwhile, flight operations at Jammu airport remained normal but due to fog in northern Indian states many trains arrived late by 1 to 6 hours at Railway Station, Jammu. An official of Railway Station Jammu informed that Train number 22432 (UHP ALD Express) arrived late by 1:40 hours, Train number 12919 (Malwa Express) by 2:48 hours, Train number 18101 (Tata Muri) by 5:52 hours and Train number 12549 (Durg Jat SF Express) was late by 2:11 hours.
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