| National highway reopens for one-way, Mughal, Leh roads remain shut | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Feb 3: Traffic was restored for one-way on the national highway, the only all weather road connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country after remaining suspended for the past three days due to landslides and shooting stones, triggered by snow and rain.
Meanwhile, the national highway, the only road linking Ladakh region with Kashmir and historic 86-km-long Mughal road remained shut since December last year due to accumulation of snow and slippery road conditions.
"We allowed one-way traffic on the highway after landslides and shooting stones were cleared at Penthal shortly before noon," a traffic police official said this afternoon.
He said Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) and Heavy Motor Vehicles (HMVs) will ply from different parts of the Jammu to Kashmir today. No vehicle, including security force convoy, would be allowed from opposite direction, he said.
He said vehicles, stranded for the past about a week were allowed to move towards their respective destination last evening after the landslides and shooting stones were cleared. However, due to fresh landslides at Penthal early this morning, traffic was again suspended on the highway.
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) immediately put into service sophisticated machines and men and cleared the landslides at Penthal and resumed traffic shortly before noon today. The NHAI and BRO are doing round the clock operation to put through the road. But, traffic on the highway is often disrupted due to intermittent landslides and shooting stones.
The 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh national highway linking Ladakh region with Kashmir also remained closed due to accumulation of snow, particularly between Sonamarg-Zojila-Meenmarg and Drass. There was also fresh snowfall early this morning at several places on the highway. However, the snow clearance operation will be started next month only. Meanwhile, the Government of India (GoI) has decided to issue a fresh tender for construction of a tunnel at Zojila to make the Srinagar-Leh national highway all weather road.
The historic Mughal road, connecting Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region also remained closed due to snow accumulation. Similarly Anantnag-Kishtwar in Jammu region, also remained shut due to accumulation of snow. |
|
