Kashmir, Ladakh highways and historic Mughal road through despite rain
Srinagar, Jun 20: Despite rain the national highway, connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country, and historic Mughal road are through for traffic though heavy vehicles will continue to ply one-way. The national highway, lining Ladakh with Kashmir was also through despite overnight rain. Meanwhile, upgradation work was in full swing on Srinagar-Jammu national highway, including on some tunnels and by passes.
Traffic on the Kashmir highway was through and traffic was plying normally despite overnight rain, a traffic police official told UNI. However, only light vehicles are being allowed to ply from both Srinagar and Jammu sides, he said adding restriction on heavy vehicles will continue. Today heavy vehicles are plying from Srinagar to Jammu, he said adding no heavy vehicle will be allowed from opposite direction.
He said restriction on heavy vehicles will continue till a green signal is received from Border Roads Organisation (BRO), responsible for the maintaniance of the highway. Meanwhile, officials said that widening and upgradation work on 170 kms on the Highway has been completed at a cost of Rs 5011 crore while work is in full swing on the balance portion of the Highway, including some tunnels and by passes. They said that 67 per cent work on the 68 kms Srinagar-Qazigund stretch has been completed while as work is on to get the proposed Banihal tunnel through at the earliest. The tunnel is expected to be readied by the year end while as the entire stretch would be readied by next year . Similarly, Pampore and Bijbehara by pass projects are almost completed and likely to be thrown open by next month, she was informed.
They said that the Jammu-Udhampur stretch of the National Highway has been completed while work is on at the Udhampur-Ramban and Ramban-Banihal stretches with varying degrees of completion. Officials said that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to develop a quality wayside facility on the newly constructed highway after every 40 kms and also plantations would be made to make it one of the greenest corridors developed by them in the country. Despite rain, two-way light vehicle traffic was plying on the historic 86-km historic Mughal road, linking Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu, a traffic official said. However, he said heavy vehicle will ply from Rajouri and Poonch today only.
The 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh national highway was also through for traffic with some restrictions. Kashmir-bound traffic is being allowed since early morning, while traffic from here to Leh in the afternoon as one-way traffic continued on Zojila pass, traffic police official said. He said this measure has been taken to avoid any accident and traffic jam on Zojila pass.