Landslide blocks highway near Ramban
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 6: The traffic on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was temporarily suspended after a landslide blocked the road in Ramban area today while tomorrow strictly the movement of security forces vehicles will be allowed on this highway.
Inspector General Traffic Police, J&K, Alok Kumar told the Excelsior that fresh landslide at Anokhi Fall between Ramban and Banihal blocked the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway at around 2 pm today. He said the highway could not be cleared as the weather condition and high speed winds hampered the restoration work besides shooting stones. Kumar said around 100 mtrs of the road stretch has been damaged and the highway will be restored shortly. He claimed that nearly 3000 vehicles have been stranded between Banihal and Ramban.
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Referring to the decision of the Govt at the highest level, only the movement of security forces vehicles will be allowed on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. No, any type of vehicle will be allowed to move on this highway during movement of security forces. However, in case of any emergency, the vehicle/ambulance will be allowed after permission by the concerned Sub Divisional/ District Magistrate after proper verification and checking by the Traffic Sectoral officer.
The IG Traffic further said intermittent shooting of stones from the hillock overlooking the highway near the scene of the landslide was going on, hampering the efforts of the agencies concerned in road-clearance operation to ensure early restoration of the highway. Ramban-Banihal stretch of the highway witnessed light rains in the evening, but the efforts are on to restore traffic on the highway as early as possible.
He, however, clarified that immediately after road clearance tonight or tomorrow morning, first stranded vehicles between Banihal and Ramban will be cleared, there after, the movement of security forces vehicles will be allowed on each side of the highway.
Meanwhile, District Magistrate, Ramban, Showkat Aijaz Bhat said the civil vehicular traffic on the highway in the jurisdiction of the district from Batote-Nashri to Jawahar Tunnel, would be restricted for safe convoy movement of security forces on Sunday for 13 hours between 4 am and 5 pm.
“In case of medical or any other emergency, people are requested to contact concerned Magistrate and police station for any help,” Magistrate said.
In case of an information, the public has been advised to contact Traffic Control Units Jammu at 0191-2459048, 9419147732; TCU Srinagar at No. 0194-245002, 2485396 or 18001807091 and Ramban TCU at Mob No. 94199-93745.
It is pertinent to mention here that on Wednesday, the Governor administration issued an order that no civilian traffic will be allowed to move from Baramulla in northern Kashmir to Udhampur in Jammu region on Sundays and Wednesdays till May 31 to facilitate smooth movement of security convoys. The traffic restriction was imposed apparently to facilitate unhindered movement of security forces’ convoys to eliminate the possibility of Pulwama-like Fidayeen terror attacks, till elections.
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