Life haywire in Kashmir after snowfall

Srinagar, Jan 18: People in Kashmir woke up to blanket of white Friday morning with the season's first major snowfall, which disrupted electricity supply and also hit road and air connectivity.Due to heavy snowfall, the Bannihal and Patnitop sectors of Srinagar-Jammu highway traffic remained suspended for the second day Friday, traffic officials said.Inter-district road connectivity also remained suspended in the morning. More than 100 snow clearing machines had been pressed into service to restore intra and inter district traffic, officials said.Kashmir University has postponed all its exams scheduled for Friday.Authorities have also issued an avalanche alert in the higher reaches of the Kashmir Valley and has advised people to move about with extreme caution.Electric supply has been disrupted in most rural and also some urban areas in the Kashmir Valley. Officials of the local power development department said efforts are on to restore electric supply.A senior engineer of the power department told IANS uninterrupted electric supply continued for essential services like hospitals, drinking water filtration plants in the Srinagar and other towns.Reports of heavy snowfall have come in from north Kashmir Gulmarg, Sonamarg and south Kashmir Pahalgam and Pir Panjal mountains.All passes leading to far flung Gurez, Tangdhar, Machil and Keran areas of the Kashmir Valley are snowbound and impassable.The weather office Friday said the present weather conditions would continue during the next 24 hours."From tomorrow (Saturday) morning onwards, the weather would start to improve," Sonam Lotus, director of the local weather office said here.