Srinagar:

As Kashmir valley remained snowbound on Friday with intermittent snow and rain lashing J&K during the day, all flights to and from Srinagar International Airport were cancelled while train service was restored to the valley in the afternoon.

Officials at Srinagar airport said that due to continuous snowfall and very low visibility, all flights to and from the airport have been cancelled.

Train service to the valley resumed in the afternoon after the railway staff restored the tracks.

Srinagar-Jammu national highway remained closed after hundreds of vehicles got stuck between the Pir Panjal tunnel and Srinagar city.

Authorities kept toiling for the whole day, clearing stranded vehicles and attending to the needs of tourists and others stranded on the highway.

Senior officials including the district magistrates of Kulgam and Anantnag supervised relief and restoration exercises as the SSPs of both these directs spent the entire day on the road with police personnel pushing stranded vehicles, attending to water and other requirements of travellers.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah took meetings of senior officials to ensure early restoration of electric power supply, clearance of roads and preparedness at the medical facilities to attend to emergencies caused by the unprecedented snowfall.

The district administration at all the districts in Kashmir valley moved out show clearance machines to restore all roads connecting the districts with each other and towns to the district headquarters.

Despite its vagaries, snowfall has been a welcome occurrence as J&K was reeling under a four-month-long dry spell.

Heavy snowfall in the mountains has replenished the perennial water reservoirs in J&K that sustain various rivers, streams, springs, lakes and other water bodies during the summer months.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Banihal/Jammu,:

Vehicular movement was suspended on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Sunday following landslides, triggered by overnight rains, at a few places in Ramban district, officials said.

A traffic department official said road clearance work at Kishtwari Pather and Mehar-Cafeteria Morh has been going on since morning to ensure early restoration of traffic on the 270-km-long highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country.

A massive landslide hit Kishtwari Pather near Nachalana in the Banihal area around midnight, while a mudslide and shooting stones from a hillock blocked the road at Mehar-Cafeteria Morh near Ramban town, the officials said.

The traffic department official said that following the landslides, the Srinagar-bound vehicles were stopped at Nagrota in Jammu and at Jakhani in Udhampur this morning. Vehicles heading towards Jammu were not allowed to go beyond Qazigund in south Kashmir.

A truck was damaged after being hit by a rock that rolled down a hillock at Panthiyal in Ramban late on Saturday evening. The truck driver and his helper escaped unhurt, the officials said.

The road is still blocked and people are advised to avoid travelling between the two capital cities till the road is cleared, they said.

The stranded vehicles will be cleared on priority once the restoration work on the route is complete, they added.

The traffic department has said that no heavy motor vehicles (HMVs) will be allowed on the highway from 4 am on Monday to 7 am on Tuesday in view of urgent repairs and upgradation of the airstrip stretch near Bijbehara in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

“Light motor vehicles (LMV) shall be diverted to the old national highway alignment between Alistop and Doonipora, including Wanpoh, Khanabal, Batengoo, Padshahi Bagh and Bijbihara. Truck drivers are advised to avoid their journey on the highway from 4 am on April 1 (Monday) to 7 am on April 2 (Tuesday),” the department said.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)