Fresh snowfall shuts Srinagar-Jammu highway

Fresh snowfall Monday closed the strategic Srinagar-Jammu highway as the weather office forecast heavy snowfall during the next 24 hours.

"The Srinagar-Jammu highway has been closed because of more than three-feet deep snow on the highway in Bannihal and Batote sectors."

"Clearance operations will start after the snowfall stops," a senior official of the traffic department told IANS here.

Continuing snowfall also resulted in poor visibility, and air traffic to and from the Kashmir valley was disrupted today (Monday).

The local weather office has forecast moderate snowfall in the plains and heavy in the higher reaches of Kashmir.

Snowfall has brought relief to the people as an extended dry spell in January caused apprehensions among farmers, orchardists and the common man.

All the perennial water reservoirs of the state are replenished by snowfall during the winter months and the former in turn sustain the rivers and streams during the summer months.