Early Times Report
Srinagar, Mar 29 : The Kashmir valley remains cut-off from rest of the country since Friday afternoon following heavy rain disrupting repair and widening work of the highway. Though it was announced that traffic will be allowed from Jammu to Srinagar today, but heavy rain since last evening has badly hampered the repair work by Border Roads Organisation (BRO), responsible for the maintenance of the highway, a traffic police official told UNI here. He said majority repair work was done by the BRO, which had pressed into service sophisticated machines and men though shooting stone and small landslides continued at several places. However, heavy rain forced BRO to suspend the repair work from 0200 hrs and it was decided not to resume traffic onthe highway today, he said.
He said there were fresh landslides and shooting stones, as a result the highway remained closed. Traffic will be allowed only after receiving green signal from the traffic police officials and BRO personnel posted at different places on the highway, he said.
The highway was closed for any traffic movement from Friday afternoon to allow repair and widening of the road,particularly at Magarkote. Only one-way traffic was allowed on the highway for the past three months as the road had become very narrow due to landslides, triggered by rain in Ramban-Ramu and Patnitop area. Keeping in view the heavy rush of vehicles and summer tourist arrival, it was decided to remove the landslides on the road and make it two-way so that vehicles could ply from Jammu and Srinagar.
Meanwhile, hundreds of vehicles, including trucks carrying essentials for Kashmir valley, are stranded at Jammu, Udhampur and other places. Large number of passengers, including women and children are also stranded at Jammu bus stand for the past three days. Similarly, large number of trucks, mostly empty, and oil tankers are stranded on this side of the Jawahar tunnel for the about one week as only Light Motor Vehicles were allowed on Friday morning before the highway was closed from afternoon. |
