Srinagar-Jammu national highway remain closed

Srinagar, Aug 15: The national highway, the only all weather road linking the Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, remained closed for the second on Wednesday due to landslides.

However, the Srinagar-Leh national highway and historic Mughal road, linking Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region are open for traffic.

Hundreds of vehicles got stranded on 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway after the road was closed due to landslides yesterday. However, many vehicles took the Mughal road to reach to their destinations.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), responsible for the maintenance of the highway, immediately put into service sophisticated machines ad men to put through the highway, connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country.

A traffic police official told TNN that highway remained closed for the second day today. However, he said, landslide clearance work was going on war footing. "Only stranded vehicles would be allowed to move towards their respective destinations first", he said, adding the decision to allow fresh traffic will be taken only after stranded vehicles are cleared.