Heavy snow blocks roads and burries homes in disputed region

(18 Jan 2012)
1. Wide pan of snow-covered highway which connects Indian-administered Kashmir valley with rest of India
2. Various of trucks buried under snow
3. Wide of Border Road Organisation (BRO) huts buried under snow
4. Various of BRO officials shovelling snow
5. Wide of trucks stranded on Srinagar-Jammu highway
6. Various of truck driver atop his vehicle, clearing snow
7. Various of trucks stranded on Srinagar Jammu-highway
8. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Ashiq Hussain, Truck driver:
"Nobody is paying attention to our plight. Our rations have finished and it is freezing cold at night. We are very worried as avalanches are also hitting the area."
9. Wide of trucks stranded on highway
10. Various of paramilitary vehicles buried under snow
11. Wide of snow-clearing trucks clearing highway
12. SOUNDBITE (Hindi/English) T.P.S. Rawat, Chief Engineer of the Border Roads Organisation:
"Because of this heavy snowfall, there are a lot of snow avalanches and snow slides taking place. But, despite that, we have managed to restore one-way vehicular traffic after three days."
13. Various of snow-clearing trucks removing snow from highway
14. Various of shops under snow
STORYLINE:
Heavy snowfall and sub-zero (Celsius) temperatures in the Indian-administered Kashmir valley have blocked several arterial roads that bring supplies to the summer capital Srinagar.
The Srinagar-Jammu highway has been partially opened for trucks carrying essential supplies after a snow-clearing operation launched by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), which maintains the 294 kilometres link between Indian-administrated Kashmir and the rest of the country.
The BRO restored one-way traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu highway on Tuesday, allowing trucks carrying essential supplies to proceed to Srinagar.
"There are a lot of snow avalanches and snow slides taking place. But, despite that, we have managed to restore one-way vehicular traffic after three days," T.P.S. Rawat, BRO's chief engineer explained.
However, there were reports from the capital of a shortage of cooking gas, kerosene oil and sugar.
Meanwhile, because of the heavy snowfall and threat of avalanches along much of the road, many trucks remained stranded on Wednesday - leaving their drivers worried.
"Nobody is paying attention to our plight. Our rations have finished and it is freezing cold at night," said one stranded truck driver. "We are very worried as avalanches are also hitting the area."
Officials have also said that no passenger vehicles are being allowed onto the highway, because of the heavy build-up of snow and threat of avalanches.
Although the winters are generally cold in the region, there is not usually such a sustained period where the maximum temperature is below zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit).
A 40-day period beginning in late December and lasting throughout January is usually the harshest period for weather in Kashmir.

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