The sight of thick snow blanketing most of north Kashmir lit up faces here as the Valley recorded its first snowfall after a long spell of dry winter. The snow fall that started on Sunday afternoon, in most parts of Baramulla and Kupwara districts, continued until evening when rain interrupted.The Valley was today cut off from the rest of the country as the Jammu-Srinagar national highway was closed following landslides and fresh snowfall since last evening.While the famous ski resort Gulmarg, recording its third heavy snowfall of the season, was under three feet snow, the frontier district of Kupwara had a snow cover of two feet with a heavy rain spell later melting it to one feet.The dry spell that had cast gloom over the farming community in the area, as it didn’t bode well for water resources, were in high spirits. Meanwhile, About 237 vehicles were stranded in Ramban area, 23 vehicles in Banihal area and 70 vehicles at Udhampur on the national highway. Superintendent of traffic police, Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, Shakeel Ahmmed Beg said the highway was closed following 20 inches of fresh snowfall around the Jawahar tunnel since last night: ‘‘It will take at least 48 hours to clear the highway.” In Rajouri, a bunker collapsed in Kandi area and a pillar of a bridge under construction over Tawi river in Jammu city was washed away.
