By IANS
Srinagar : Since it has snowed so little in Kashmir this year, authorities Thursday decided to allow light vehicular traffic on the Srinagar-Kargil highway, which normally remains closed during the winter months.
“Light vehicular traffic shall ply on the Srinagar-Kargil road passing through the Zojilla pass from today (Thursday) till the weather permits,” a senior official said here.
The Srinagar-Kargil road normally remains closed from the middle of November till the middle of May because of heavy snowfall on the Zojilla pass.
But the alarmingly scanty snowfall in the Kashmir Himalayas so far this winter has made it possible to re-open the Srinagar-Kargil road.
The re-opening of the road has come as a great relief to the people of the Ladakh region who remain cut off from the rest of the state during the winter months except through air services.
The dry but very cold winter is worrying Kashmiris as most of the rivers here are running unusually low.
The minimum temperature here Thursday again fell to minus 4.4 degrees Celsius while it dropped to minus 15 degrees in Leh.
Though the maximum temperature here Wednesday was 12 degrees Celsius, the famous Dal Lake in the city has already started freezing at many places.
“Weather is likely to stay dry in the (Kashmir) Valley during the next 24 hours (starting Thursday morning) with a further fall in the minimum temperatures,” said N.P. Bhatnagar, director of the met office here.