Mughal Road closed after snowfall in J-K

The Mughal Road, connecting the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu region with South Kashmir's Shopian district, was closed for vehicular traffic on Wednesday after snowfall in the high altitude areas, officials said.

The weather department on Tuesday predicted widespread moderate to heavy snowfall and rains in the hills and plains of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh union territories for three days starting from Wednesday.

There was snowfall in high altitude areas including Pir Ki Gali on Tuesday due to which the road was closed for vehicular traffic as a precautionary measure, the officials said.

They said commuters had been directed to avoid travel along the road to avoid any untoward incident.

Meanwhile, the officials said traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway was going on smoothly despite rains.

Light motor vehicles are moving from both sides on nearly 300-km highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, while heavy vehicles were allowed to move during evening timing from Jammu to Srinagar.

The movement of heavy vehicles was restricted to one-way owing to overall condition of the road, especially between Jawahar Tunnel and Ramban, coupled with narrow width of the highway at some places owing to the ongoing widening and upgrading work.

The weather system is likely to cause temporary disruptions on surface transport especially over passes like Zojila, Srinagar-Jammu, Leh-Manali Highway, Mughal Road due to landslides, low temperatures and heavy snowfall.

"There is an active western disturbance. Its interaction with Cyclone MAHA (currently lying over East central Arabian sea) is most likely to cause widespread moderate to heavy snowfall and rain in the plains of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh from November 6 to 8," Director, State Meteorological department, Sonam Lotus, said.