Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 2: The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway which was lying closed for the last seven days, was restored for one -way traffic today and nearly 1800 stranded trucks and oil/ LPG tankers loaded with essential commodities are being cleared towards Kashmir valley.
Official sources said that nearly 10 machines including dozers and loaders of the National Highway Authority of India, which were on the job for the last four days, today restored single road at Dalwas near Chanderkote in district Ramban where nearly 500 meters of road stretch has sunk due to heavy rains recently. Although landslides also occurred at nearly 10 places between Nashri-Ramban and Banihal but these slides have already been cleared by the National Highway authorities. Click here to watch video
Inspector General of Police, Traffic (J&K), T Namgyal told the Excelsior that 270 km Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was restored today and the stranded trucks/ oil tankers loaded with essentials are being allowed to move towards Kashmir. He said nearly 1800 vehicles with essentials were stranded in Nashri, Chenani and Udhampur area and they are being cleared for Valley.
Namgyal further said about 2000 trucks including many Army vehicles are also stranded in Banihal and Lower Munda area and they will be cleared by tomorrow. It is our priority to restore supplies towards Kashmir, the IG maintained.
SSP traffic, National Highway J S Johar said at around 2.30 am midnight, the NHAI machines managed to restore single link at Dalwas landslide zone near Chanderkote. For trial run, a few empty vehicles were allowed to move but they started trapping in marshy soft land. There after, heavy rain started in the area and the road turned marshy during morning hours and was blocked again.
After the rain stopped in the morning , the restoration work again started at around 8 am and the road was restored at around 9.30 am. As the weather remained clear there after, the movement of heavy vehicles towards Valley was allowed at round 10 am. He said that by 7 pm, more than 800 vehicles crossed Ramban area. The 500 mtr road patch at Dalwas was yet slippery and the movement of vehicles in this zone was very slow. Therefore, vehicles were taking much time at this bottleneck.
Johar further said that after the stranded vehicles towards Valley are cleared, the movement of Jammu bound vehicles and stranded on that side for the last seven days will be allowed. It is hoped that all the stranded vehicles with essentials towards Kashmir will be cleared during the night. Some movement of Army vehicles was also allowed in between. This single road at Dalwas will remain operational for some time and for restoration of permanent and double lane road there, it will take some more time, the SSP added.
Meanwhile, reports from Ramban, Batote, Doda and parts of Chenani and Udhampur said that there was heavy rain during night and morning hours today. In Patnitop, Mantalai, Latti, Dudu and Basantgarh areas of Udhampur , there was also hailstorm which further dropped the temperature in the area. The weather in some plain areas of Jammu, however, remained fair today.
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