SRINAGAR: Traffic on the Srinagar to Jammu national highway, the only all weather road connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, was suspended again on Tuesday due to fresh snowfall since early this morning.
Traffic was to ply from Jammu to Srinagar on Tuesday, a traffic police official said.
However, all Kashmir-bound vehicles have been stopped at Nagrota and Udhampur, he added.
He said traffic on the highway was suspended again today following fresh snowfall at Qazigund, both sides of Jawhar Tunnel (JT) and Shaitan Nallh. “About six inches of snow has accumulated at Tunnel,” he said, adding the road has become very slippery.
Rain also lashed landslides prone area between Ramban and Ramsu since early this morning. ”All vehicles which had left different parts of the Jammu region have been stopped at Nagrota and Udhampur,” he said.
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has started snow clearance operation, he said, adding but continued snowing was hampering the operation. “Once a green signal is received from traffic officials and NHAI, traffic will be resumed from Jammu to Srinagar,” he added.
Frequent closure of the highway due to snow, landslides, shooting stones often leads to shortage of essentials, including fresh vegetables, meat, chicken and LPG cylinders in the valley, which is entirely dependent upon imports from different northern states. Prices of essentials also go up when highway gets closed.
The 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh highway, the only road connecting Union Territory (UT) Ladakh with Kashmir, and 98-km-long Mughal road, linking Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region, and Anantnag-Kishtwar road which remained closed for the past 49 days on Tuesday due to accumulation of snow and slippery conditions. (agencies)
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