Traffic remains suspended for 3rd day on Srinagar-Jammu national highway

Srinagar, Jan 24: The traffic on Sunday remained suspended for the third successive day on 270-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the only road connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, due to shooting stones and slippery road conditions following accumulation of snow.

"No vehicular movement was allowed on the Srinagar-Jammu highway on Sunday in view of shooting stones and mudslides at several places following the rainfall during the last 24 hours," a traffic police official told TNN.

He said several inches of snow has accumulated at Qazigund, on both sides of Jawahar tunnel, Shaitan Nallah and Banihal, making the road slippery.

He said the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), responsible for the maintenance of the highway, has put into service sophisticated machines to clear the snow and mudslides. However, he said it is highly unlikely that the traffic on the highway will be restored on Sunday. "Traffic will be resumed only after getting green signal from the NHAI and traffic police personnel deployed on the highway," he added.

The Srinagar-Jammu national highway was closed for vehicular traffic on Friday for weekly maintenance and repair of the road. The Union Territory (UT) administration has decided to allow NHAI to undertake weekly necessary repair work every Friday after frequent disruption in traffic movement on the highway.

On Saturday, the traffic had to be suspended following snowfall on this side of Jawahar tunnel and rain on the other side.

Meanwhile, the 86-km-long historic Mughal road, linking Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region, and Anantnag-Sampthan-Kishtwar road also remained closed since last week of December, 2020, due to accumulation of several feet of snow.

The national highway, the only road connecting Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh with Kashmir, has been closed since January 1, 2021, for winter months due to accumulation of snow. The Government of India (GoI) has already sanctioned tunnel at Zojila pass to make it all weather road.