Fresh snowfall: Karnah road closes; opn to put through Keran, Machil, Gurez roads suspended
Srinagar, Mar 20: Traffic on Kupwara road to Karnah, a border town in north Kashmir, was once again suspended on Wednesday due to fresh snowfall after resuming on Monday.
Meanwhile, snow clearance operation was temporarily suspended due to fresh snowfall since Tuesday on roads connecting dozens of far-flung and remote areas, including those near the Line of Control (LoC), which remained cut off since January 9 from their respective districts and tehsil headquarters in Kashmir due to accumulation of several feet of snow.
“We have once again suspended traffic on Kupwara-Karnah road, which received fresh about a foot of snow since Tuesday evening,” a Police Control Room (PCR) official told UNI over the phone from Kupwara.
Two-way traffic was restored on Kupwara-Karnah road on Monday after remaining closed since January due to accumulation of several feet of snow.
Dozens of roads -- including border towns of Keran, Karnah, Machil, Tanghdar and Gurez -- were closed following accumulation of several feet of snow since January 9. Snow clearance operations could not be initiated as several feet of snow had frozen on these roads due to below freezing temperature.
He said after improvement in the weather, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), responsible for the maintenance of Kupwara-Karnah road, pressed into service sophisticated machines and men and restored traffic to the remote border town on Monday.
However, he said the snow clearance operation was again suspended in these areas due to fresh moderate to heavy snowfall.
The border town of Gurez, which is surrounded by Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) from three sides, besides Neeru and dozens of other villages also remained cut off from district headquarters Bandipora since January due to accumulation of snow and slippery road conditions.
A PCR official told TNN over the phone from Bandipora that the snow clearance operation to restore traffic to the border town has been suspended due to fresh snowfall since Tuesday.