Traffic resumes along Tajikistan major road as snowdrifts removed - company
DUSHANBE. Feb 5 (Interfax) - The arterial motor road linking the capital of Dushanbe to Khujand, Tajikistan's second-largest city, "has been completely cleared of snowdrifts after numerous avalanches blocked it from January 28 onward," and traffic along it has resumed, the company managing the road, Innovative Road Solutions, said in a statement on Wednesday.
However, another automotive artery, a road linking capital city Dushanbe to Khorugh, the administrative center of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in the Pamir mountains, remains cut off by avalanches.
Last month, temperatures in the Central Asian country would reach plus 15 degrees Celsius, but with the unusually frosty weather that came on February 1, temperatures in mountain valleys dropped to minus 10 degrees in the daytime and minus 15 at night.
In the mountain areas through which the 310-kilometer Dushanbe-Khujand motorway passes, temperatures do not rise above minus 20 these days.
The Dushanbe-Khujand road is a dangerous road in the wintertime, with dozens of accidents occurring there every winter. However, it remains the only road connecting central Tajikistan to its Sughd province and the borders of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Traffic along the 600-kilometer Dushanbe-Khorugh road meanwhile remains stalled. "Road maintenance services and rescue parties are working in the avalanche area," the Emergency Situations Committee said in a statement.
The frost and snowfalls have made the Education Ministry take an unprecedented step - it has closed all of the country's schools, higher educational institutions and kindergartens until February 10 at the earliest.
Meanwhile, the Tajik weather service says Thursday will be another frosty day with more snowfall.