Landslides halt traffic on Jammu-Bhadarwah highway

The Jammu-Bhadarwah national highway, the only road link between Bhadarwah and rest of the country, was today closed for vehicular traffic leaving over 500 vehicles stranded.
The highway was closed since early morning due to massive landslides and shooting stones at Shahpura-Purano on Doda-Bhadarwah stretch, about 175 kms from Jammu, a Border and Roads Organisation (BRO) official said.
He added that they were working to clear the debris caused by landslides but shooting stones were making the task difficult.
They are hopeful to restore the traffic soon, the official said.
"The highway was closed for vehicular traffic today due to huge landslide at 6:00 am and continuous shooting stones thereafter, the BRO men and machine reached here at 9:00 am but till now road link could not be restored. We are waiting here for the last eight hours," said a Jammu bound passenger Mohd Sultan.

Meanwhile, the locals are up in arms against the BRO authorities, alleging, unauthorised extraction of stones and use of sub-standard material in retaining walls was causing repeated landslides and sinking of road on Doda-Bhadarawah stretch.