Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, May 12: Srinagar-Leh National highway, re-opened for traffic yesterday after remaining closed for five months, was closed today after heavy rains in the State and snowfall in the hills.
Inspector General of Police, Traffic, Muneer Khan, told Excelsior that highway was closed for traffic after heavy rains triggered land and snow slides in Zojila area of the highway.
Khan said that around 500 light vehicles crossed to Ladakh yesterday and around 300 LMVs crossed the Zojila from Ladakh towards Srinagar today before the highway was closed for traffic.
The IGP said that no traffic will be allowed on the highway till weather improves and road condition improves. It may be mentioned here that the highway in Zojila area is prone to land and snow slides.
The highway was re-opened yesterday for traffic after remaining closed for 5 months. The highway was closed in December 2013 due to heavy snowfall in Zojila area.
There was around 8-10 feet snow in Zojila area on the highway. The Border Roads Organization (BRO) started clearance of the snow from highway in March this year but freak weather led to hampering of their operation and finally they finished snow clearance on May 2.
However, Chief Engineer Beacon, Brigadier R K Sharma said last week that there is threat of snow avalanches and risk involved in re-opening of the highway.
In the meantime, the Karvan-e-Aman bus, operating between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) got delayed today due to landslides triggered by heavy rains near Uri.
Officials said that Srinagar-Uri road remained closed today due to landslides at Bandi Lagama near Uri this morning. The BRO men, however, cleared the slides at around 3:30 p.m.
The Karvan-e-Aman was stopped in the morning and was allowed to proceed towards Aman Setu after the road was cleared, the officials said.
The rains across the State and snowfall in the hills today led to dip in the temperature with chilly winds blowing across Kashmir valley. People pulled out the wollens from the cupboards and heating devices were back after they were switched off following rise in temperature.
The temperature in Srinagar dropped from 22 degree Celsius yesterday to 16.3 degrees today with minimum night temperature recorded at 12 degree Celsius and around 10.0 mm rainfall was recorded here. The temperature in Srinagar is 2 degrees below normal.
The maximum temperature in Jammu was recorded at 30.1 degree Celsius and minimum temperature was recorded at 21.22 degree Celsius. The temperature in Jammu fell by 13 degrees.
The maximum temperature at Pahalgam was recorded at 12.0 degree Celsius and minimum at 7.4 degree Celsius with the tourist resort recording 9 mm rains.
The Director Meteorological Department in Srinagar, Sonam Lotus, told Excelsior that moderate rainfall will continue tomorrow across the State but weather will improve day after. He said that there is possibility of hail storm at some places especially in Jammu division.
Our Jammu correspondent adds:-
Jammu also witnessed showers tonight while the weather remained cloudy and pleasant during the day. The day’s temperature was recorded at 30.1 degrees Celsius.
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