SRINAGAR: No fresh traffic was allowed on Friday on the national highway, the only road connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country as large number of vehicles remained stranded at different places since yesterday.
Meanwhile, only one-way traffic will continue on national highway, linking Ladakh region with Kashmir and traffic will ply from Srinagar to Leh today, Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) will ply from 0700 hrs to 1000 hrs from Sonamarg and Heavy Motor Vehicle (HMVs) from 1000 hrs to 1300 hrs. No vehicle will be allowed from opposite direction.
Only one-way traffic was allowed on historic 86-km-long Mughal road, seen as alternative to Srinagar-Jammu highway today.
”We have not allowed any fresh vehicle on the Srinagar-Jammu highway today,” official sources said.
They said Kashmir-bound vehicles, including trucks carrying essentials and LPG and oil tankers besides passengers, were allowed to move since this morning. No vehicle will be allowed from opposite direction, they added.
Sources said that Mughal road, connecting Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region, was through for one-way traffic only. The LMVs will ply from 0500 hrs to 0900 hrs from Hirpora, Shopian to other side of the Pir-ki-Gali, while the HMVs will be allowed from 0900 hrs to 1600 hrs. No vehicle will be allowed from other side of the road, which is now being used as alternative to Srinagar-Jammu highway.
Meanwhile, advisors to Governor, K Vijay Kumar, Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, K K Sharma and K Skandan jointly chaired a high-level meeting to discuss the status of works undertaken for maintenance of Jammu-Srinagar National Highway keeping in view the regular incidents of landslides resulting its blockage, an official spokesman said.
The meeting also discussed the action plan for maintenance and repairs of Mughal Road and creation of wayside amenities so as to make it an alternate road link between Kashmir and Jammu regions.
Deliberate discussions were held on the directions already issued to the concerned departments/agencies for expediting the works related to maintenance and repair of National Highway especially covering of slopes at identified places so as to minimise the chances of landslides causing road blockage.
Inspector General (IG) Traffic Alok Kumar informed the meeting about the plan which the traffic department has adopted to regulate the traffic on National Highway (NH) and Mughal Road these days and measures to be adopted for ensuring smooth movement of traffic on these important road links.
Representatives from NH while apprising the meeting about the condition of the road said that the repair and maintenance works are underway and an Expert Committee from New Delhi shall be visiting the state within few days and would conduct visit to the National Highway to study its present condition. It would later submit a report on how to minimize the incidents of landslides by covering the slopes.
The meeting further deliberated upon various important issues which needs immediate attention of concerned departments and agencies to resolve them in a time bound manner.
After thorough discussions and the inputs provided by the participants, few measures were decided upon to ensure movement of traffic on both the roads.
(agencies)
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