Highway blockade to hit supplies in Kashmir valley

SRINAGAR - Fresh snowfall and slippery road conditions blocked the Srinagar-Jammu national highway for the second day Sunday, raising fears about the availability of essential supplies in the Kashmir valley.

Locals feared that the blockade of the Jammu-Srinagar highway, the only road link between the valley and the rest of the country, will hit the availability of essential supplies in the Kashmir valley.

This helps the hoarders and blackmarketeers to create artificial scarcity of essential commodities and hike their prices.

“There has been fresh snowfall in the Jawahar tunnel area of the highway. For safety of passengers, we have closed the traffic on the highway. The situation would be reviewed after the weather shows signs of improvement in the area,” Senior Superintendent (National Highway) Alok Kumar said.

He said over 500 passenger vehicles and load carriers were stranded between Udhampur and Bannihal towns.

“All the passenger vehicles and load carriers are at safe spots on the highway and adequate arrangements have been made to help the stranded passengers,” Kumar said.

The minimum temperature in the Kashmir valley and the cold desert of Ladakh region showed an upward trend.

The minimum temperature in Srinagar was 0.2 degrees Celsius while it was minus 3.4 degrees in Leh and minus 5 degrees in Kargil town,” said an official of the weather department here.

“As the Western disturbance persists over Kashmir, there would be more snowfall and rain across the valley during the next two days,” the met official said.