The life across the Kashmir valley continued to remain disrupted on Wednesday as an unrelenting spell of heavy snowfall blocked the main highway and forced the shutdown of air traffic in the region.
The snowfall began across the region following a day of respite yesterday. Downpour is part of the spell that had begun on Sunday and continued for two days.
An official of the Srinagar Meteorological Centre said the latest snowfall was not expected and was caused by the residual moisture.
“The main storm has passed, but the residual moisture caused this snowfall. We expect it to last till evening,” Mukhtar Ahmad, Deputy Director of the Centre, said.
The fresh snowfall in the region continued to cause large-scale disruptions and hampered efforts to open a crucial highway that serves as the only route for essential supplies to the Kashmir valley.
The Srinagar-Jammu highway, which is the main winter route for passenger traffic and essential supplies to the Kashmir valley, has remained disrupted for the past one week. It continued to remain blocked in Ramban district where landslides and fallting stones forced the highway’s closure, an official said.
The air traffic in the region also remained disrupted as snowfall since early morning caused low visibility and led to suspension of air operations. All flights scheduled to arrive at and depart from the Srinagar international airport were cancelled, the official said.
The shutdown of the highway and the only civilian airport has cut-off the Kashmir valley from the rest of the country and also aggravated the shortage of essential supplies, including food and petrol, in the region.
