Snowfall layered white blanket across plains and upper reaches of Kashmir valley on Friday leading to closure of only land connectivity of the valley with other parts of the world, suspension of the air traffic and land routes to Line of Control were closed as well. Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted heavy snowfall ‘very likely at isolated places over Jammu & Kashmir’.Officials at the Mechanical and Engineering Division told KNO that men and machinery has been put in place for road clearance.“All the people have been geared up to clear roads, emergency first, with headquarters at Shalteng,” he said.Traffic over the Srinagar Jammu Highway was suspended after massive snowfall at Jawahar tunnel and other areas along the stretch. Traffic police officials told Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that the traffic was suspended due to bad weather conditions and slippery conditions of the road.“Any person wishing to travel on the road should first consult the traffic police and should not take on journey without official clearance,” the official said. Officials at the Sriangar Airport said that due to poor visibility air traffic had to be cancelled Friday afternoon.“The air traffic remained suspended in the after noon because of poor visibility due to dense fog, but flight operations took place in the morning,” an airport official said.The officials said that the air traffic will be resumed on January 5, on Saturday, owing to better weather conditions and better visibility. The widespread snowfall also lead to the closure of the hilly roads in the Kupwara district.
“Kupwara-Tanghdar road has been closed for two days, the Kupwara-Machil and Kupwara-Keran roads have been shut till further orders,” officials said. The district adminstration Bandipora established helpline in view of the prevailing weather conditions.The helpline numbers are here: 18001807059, 01957225322, 01957225276, 7006526985 and 9797151356,. Srinagar District administration also has issued emergency numbers for people.MeT officials said that Srinagar recorded 3.7 degree Celsius , Qazigund ecorded maximum of 3.8 degrees Celsius and low of minus 0.8 degrees Celsius, Kokernag registered minus 1.0 and maximum of 3.2 degrees Celsius, Pahalgam had minus 6.8 degrees Celsius and maximum of 0.5 degrees Celsius, Gulmarg recorded the minimum temperature of minus 10.0 degrees Celsius, Kupwara recorded a low of minus 4.6 degrees Celsius and maximum of 3.2 degrees Celsius.Meanwhile, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan issued an avalanche warning for nine districts of Kashmir division in view of the inclement weather and snowfall.The warning has been issued for the avalanche-prone areas in district Anantnag, Kulgam, Budgam, Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora, Ganderbal, Kargil and Leh.As per a handout, the Divisional Commissioner has asked the Deputy Commissioners of all these districts to advise the people living in avalanche prone areas not to venture out during the snowfall. Besides, they have been directed to take all the precautionary measures and to keep the SDRF, Police and Para-medical staff with ambulances in readiness to deal with any untoward incident.(KNO)