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| Ministers of stranded passengers on increase | | | JAMMU, FEB 25
Despite the blasting job for the carving out a new patch of road near Panthal going on at a brisk pace, the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway is likely to remain closed for few more days. Hundreds of passengers are now crossing the Panthal area on foot to make it to Srinagar. The state government has also pressed services of transport vehciles to ferry stranded passengers. Meanwhile in Jammu the wait list of stranded passengers is increasing along with miseries of poor and needy passengers as majority of them are running short of money to sustain them.
On Sunday, a group of parents of missing persons who had gone to New Delhi to stage silent protests reached Jammu on way back to Srinagar and were shifted to a dharamshala to make them comfortable till their forward journey gets clearance.
The highway was closed on 21st of February after torrential rains caused heavy landslides and erosion of a patch of the highway, forcing hundreds of passenger vehicles and goods carriers to remain stranded on the national highway. Efforts are now on to carve out the eroded patch afresh from the mountain side.
The State Road Transport Corporation has, meanwhile, made an alternative arrangement of transport by which passengers will be ferried up to Panthal and then made to cross over to the other side of the hill on foot where they board a second vehicle for their onward journey.
One of the passengers, Tariq Sofi, who reached Srinagar this evening after spending two nights at Ramban said, "We walked all the way from Ramban to Ramsu where we boarded a vehicle up to Banihal. Then another vehicle carried us all the way to Srinagar." Tariq said that authorities could have minimized their toil by allowing vehicles to carry them to the place of erosion and allow them to cross over the top of the hill on foot.
Stating the progress in the job of carving out the new patch, SP National Highway , Mohammed Yaseen Badroo said that blasting job for the road construction is on but the job is likely to take four more days. "We shall assess the situation on Tuesday evening after which we shall be in a position to determine weather traffic can move on the patch or not," said Badroo.
The SP said that high level officials of BEACON are monitoring the work and heavy and most sophisticated machinery is being used to construct the eroded patch of road. "The construction shall continue throughout the clock for the next four days. If weather remains favourable, I hope that traffic shall pass over the new patch on Tuesday evening," said the SP.
While passengers are now moving the distance by foot, hundreds of goods carriers that remain stranded on the national highway will have to move for the next four days before seeing any forward movement. Transporters now fear losses because several among these goods carriers carry fruit and vegetables besides poultry and sheep that are vulnerable. |
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