Snow clearance begins on Mughal Road

Srinagar, March 18: A major operation to clear the snowbound 84-km Mughal Road has been initiated in south Kashmir’s Shopian district and is likely to continue over the next 20 days, following which the road will be reopened to traffic.

The snow-clearance operation was launched on Saturday and will involve dozens of workers of the roads and buildings department’s mechanical division, a government spokesman said. He said that the work to clear snow from the mountainous road, which connects Shopian district in south Kashmir with Poonch district of the Jammu region, would “take around 20 days depending on the amount of snow in the higher reaches and landslides which usually hinder the operations”.

The historic Mughal Road, remains shut for the winter as heavy amount of snow blocks it for all vehicular traffic. The road is now likely to be reopened in the early weeks of April. Apart of Mughal Road, another major highway which links Kashmir with Ladakh is also shut for the past at least three months