Srinagar-Leh national highway closed due to heavy snowfall

SRINAGAR: High altitude areas of Jammu and Kashmir, including the famous ski resort of Gulmarg, experienced the season's first heavy snowfall leading to the closure of 434-km long Srinagar-Leh national highway, officials said.

Traffic on the strategic highway, the only road linking the frontier region of Ladakh with the rest of the state, was temporarily suspended this morning after the snowfall, a spokesman of the traffic department told PTI.

He said about five inches of snow had accumulated on the road at 11,578 foot high Zojilla pass, 107 kms from here, which attracts the heaviest snowfall in winter and remains closed for nearly six months each year.

Nearly half a dozen Srinagar-bound trucks were stranded and efforts are on to take them to safety, the spokesman said.

"If weather permits, the highway will be thrown open to traffic again in the coming days before scheduled closure later this month," the spokesman said.

The snowfall also snapped road links with the border towns of Gurez, Tangdhar, Machil, Karnah and Keran in north Kashmir, official sources said.