Dynamite News
Kashmir highway remain closed for 3rd day, hundreds of vehicles stranded
The national highway, only all weather road connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, remained closed for the third day on Saturday due to continued landslides and shooting stones, triggered by rain and snow while Ladakh highway and historic Mughal road remained shut since December last year.
Srinagar: The national highway, only all weather road connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, remained closed for the third day on Saturday due to continued landslides and shooting stones, triggered by rain and snow while Ladakh highway and historic Mughal road remained shut since December last year.
However, about 800 vehicles, including trucks, oil tankers and those carrying passengers, stranded at several places were allowed to move towards their respective destinations on Friday evening before fresh landslides forced closure of the highway.
"Today we had planned to allow only Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) from Jammu to Srinagar only," a traffic police official told UNI, adding that it was decided not to allow any Heavy Motor Vehicle (HMV) and traffic from opposite direction.
Vehicles which had left Jammu have been stopped at Udhampur and will be allowed to move towards Kashmir only after receiving green signal from traffic police and Beacon authorities, he said.
But, he said, there were fresh landslides at Digdol and Khonihallah forcing closure of the highway again.
However, he said the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Beacon project, responsible for the maintenance of the highway, have already pressed into service sophisticated machines and men to work to put through the road. It will take several hours to allow traffic on the highway provided there are no fresh landslides and shooting stones, he said.
He said vehicles, stranded for the past few days on the highway, will be cleared first before allowing fresh traffic.
The national highway, connecting Ladakh region with Kashmir valley remained closed since December last year due to accumulation of snow. Similarly, the 86-km-long historic Mughal road, linking Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region and Anantnag to Kishtwar roads remained closed since December last year.(UNI)