Jammu: Mughal Road opens after 3 days

Our Correspondent

Jammu, December 3

After remaining closed for three days due to heavy snowfall on higher reaches, Mughal Road, which is an alternative route to the Kashmir valley, was thrown open on Sunday. The road connects Kashmir’s Shopian district with Rajouri and Poonch district of the Jammu division. The traffic was restored for one-way due to heavy accumulation of snow. The road was closed due to snowfall at several places along the road, including ‘Pir Ki Gali’ area on November 30.

Meanwhile, the popular tourist resorts of Pahalgam and Gulmarg continued to reel under sub-zero temperatures on Sunday even as the rest of Kashmir witnessed warmer than usual night, the weather department said. Gulmarg skiing resort in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district recorded a low of -3.6° Celsius and was the coldest place in the Valley.

Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, which serves as one of the base camps for the annual Amarnath Yatra, saw the mercury settling at -2.4° Celsius, the MeT office said. Elsewhere in the Valley, the minimum temperature stayed above the freezing point owing to a cloud cover even as the weather is expected to remain dry over the next week.

The minimum temperature in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, was 1.4° Celsius, a dip of over three notches from 4.8° Celsius recorded the previous night, MeT officials said.

Qazigund recorded a low of 1.2° Celsius, down from 3.4° Celsius observed the previous night. Kokernag town in south Kashmir registered a minimum of 2.6° Celsius, while Kupwara, in the north, recorded a low of 1.2° Celsius.

The three-week dry spell in Kashmir ended on Thursday with snowfall in the middle and higher reaches of the valley and rains in the plains. The intermittent snowfall continued at some places such as Sonamarg in central Kashmir on Friday morning as well. The Met office said the weather would remain mainly dry till December 10.

(With PTI inputs)

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