With India''s northern Jammu and Kashmir state receiving heavysnowfall, the 300-km long Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the juglar veinof the Kashmir valley, has been closed as a precautionary measure butlocals fear it could shoot up prices of essential commodities.The highway remained blocked for the third consecutive day on Friday(January 18) cutting off Kashmir valley from rest of the country.The Srinagar-Jammu highway passes through some of the most tricky mountainterrain in the Pir Panjal mountain range of Kashmir.The roads in the valley are covered under white blanket of snow disruptingnormal life in several parts of the region.Authorities have set up disaster management control rooms at all thedistrict headquarters to tackle any untoward incident after more than fifteenpersons were killed in avalanches last week.Reports say higher reaches of Kashmir including Sonamarg, Gulmarg andPahalgam hill resorts experienced heavy snowfall while moderate snowfallcontinued in the lower parts of the valley.The Srinagar-Jammu highway gets blocked every time when there is heavysnowfall.Meanwhile, people in Kashmir fear that the prices of essential commoditiesmight shoot up due to closure of the road as the valley is heavily dependenton imports to meet its essential needs.According to the residents, prices of a few essential commodities havealready gone up and prices of other goods might shoot up as shopkeepers inSrinagar and other parts of the state allegedly indulge in blackmarketing.The rise in prices of the essential commodities is affecting common man''sbudget adversly and they want that the government must take measures tocontrol prices.The locals hope that the weather would soon clear up and the situationreturns to normal.