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| Weather halts Yatra again, NH closed | | |
ET REPORTER
Jammu, July 8: Inclement weather has yet again put brakes on the Amarnath Yatra with heavy reains and snowfall since last midnight blocking the route at several places.
Meanwhile, the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway too remained closed for the day due to landslides at several places.
Reports said that snowfall and incessant rains halted the Amarnath Yatra yet again this morning as over 13,000 pilgrims camped at various places on the twin routes to the holy cave shrine.
The Spokesperson of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, Madan Mantoo said, "it has been snowing in the region since early morning as both the northern Baltal and the southern Pahalgam routes are lashed by incessant rains. We have halted the yatra (march) from both routes”.
Mantoo said over 13,000 pilgrims are camping at several places along the two routes.
"While 3,940 pilgrims are camped at the Baltal base camp, 4,178 are at the southern Nunwan base camp, 2,320 at Sheshnag, 1,455 at Panchtarni and 1,350 at the holy cave," he said.
As many as 75,029 devotees have undertaken the pilgrimage so far and over 6,500 people prayed at the shrine Saturday alone.
Mantoo added that Sunita, a pilgrim from Jalandhar in Punjab, had died due to heart failure at Zojibal on the northern route Saturday. Strong winds and rain had halted the yatra on July 2 also.
Meanwhile, The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was closed to traffic today after landslides triggered by heavy rains blocked it at Samroli, 80 kms from here, leaving thousands of vehicles stranded including those carrying Amarnath pilgrims.
Landslides caused by rains in Samroli area in Udhampur-Kud sector forced closure of the highway around 0800 hours, official source said.
Men and machines of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) are working to clear the highway of landslides to ensure smooth passage of vehicles, they said.
However, incessant rains was making the task of the BRO personnel difficult, the sources said adding efforts are on to re-open the highway for one-way traffic.
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