SRINAGAR : The national highway, connecting the Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, remained closed for the third consecutive day today due to fresh snowfall and landslides, triggered by rain.
Closure of the highway has resulted in shortage of essentials, particularly fresh vegetables while the prices of other items, including chicken, has witnessed sharp increase in the valley, where people dependent on imports of everything for survival.
Meanwhile, hundreds of vehicles, including trucks and oil tankers, remained stranded at different places on the highway, including Qazigund on this side of the Jawahar tunnel and Batote, Kud, Nagrota and Udhampur for the past four days.
The Kashmir valley remained cut off from the rest of the country for the third consecutive day today due to closure of highway due to landslides and fresh snowfall.
Traffic on the highway remained suspended due to landslides and shooting stones besides fresh snowfall, a traffic police official told UNI. He said there were landslides and shooting stones between Ramban and Ramsu area, including Digdol on the highway forcing authorities to close the road till further orders.
There was also fresh snowfall at Jawahar tunnel and Banihal this morning, he said, adding that intermittent rain and snow also continued during the night.
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), responsible for the maintenance of the highway, has already put sophisticated machines and men into work to clear the landslides.
However, intermittent rain, triggering fresh shooting stones, is hampering the road clearance operation, he said, adding that no vehicle was allowed from Srinagar or Jammu for the third day today.
Traffic on the road will be resumed only after getting green signal from the BRO and traffic police officials posted on the highway at different places.
Meanwhile, hundreds of vehicles, particularly empty trucks and oil tankers, have been stopped at Qazigund and other places on this side of the tunnel due to closure of the highway.
Truckers stranded for the past four days alleged that they are facing acute shortage of essentials, particularly rice and vegetables. There is also no water, they said and demanded that government make proper arrangements at all places where vehicles are stopped from moving ahead.
Similarly, large number of valley based trucks, carrying essentials for Kashmir are also stranded at several places.
Traffic on the highway remained disrupted frequently since first major snowfall on January 6. However, despite putting all out efforts by BRO, only one-way traffic could be restored on the highway.
Meanwhile, the historic Mughal road, connecting Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region, also received fresh snowfall since last night.
The road, which is seen as an alternative to Srinagar-Jammu national highway, remained closed since January only to reopen in April-May.
Dozens of far-flung and remote villages, including those near the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir, remained cut off from their respective district headquarters due to snow.
The road strategically import road from Bandipora-Gurez, border town in north Kashmir also remained closed due to accumulation of snow. The road is expected to reopen only in April-May after remaining closed since January this year.
However, the authorities claimed to have stored all essentials, including rice, atta, sugar, LPG cylinders in cut off areas for six winter months.
The national highway, linking Ladakh region with Kashmir, also remained closed for the past three months due to snow, particularly at Zojila, Zero point and Meenmarg. There was fresh snowfall on the highway, including at Sonamarg during the past 24 hours. (AGENCIES)
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