One-way traffic resumes on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway after 3-day closure

The one-way traffic on the 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway resumed on Sunday after remaining suspended for the past three days owing to multiple landslides triggered by heavy rains in Ramban district last week, traffic department officials said.

The fresh traffic was allowed from Jammu towards Srinagar this morning after the road clearance agencies removed the debris at nearly a dozen places and made the road trafficable, they said.

However, he said two fresh landslides near Monkey Morh in Ramban caused some disruptions in the smooth movement of vehicles earlier in the day.

The highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, was closed for vehicular traffic on Thursday after the road was blocked by landslides at over a dozen places between Nashri and Banihal in Ramban district, leaving more than 3,000 Kashmir-bound vehicles stranded.

After hectic efforts by the concerned agencies, the officials said the road was made trafficable and the stranded passenger vehicles were first cleared for travel Saturday evening but a fresh landslide at Monkey Morh around 2 am halted the traffic again.

Men and machinery were immediately pressed into service and the debris of the landslide was cleared around 10.20 am but the traffic had to be suspended once again within an hour after another landslide struck the same place.

The road was cleared of the debris and the traffic resumed once again around noon, the officials said adding the traffic is playing smoothly when last reports were received.

Besides the landslides, the Jawahar Tunnel, the gateway to Kashmir, also experienced snowfall twice in the past fortnight, causing frequent disruptions on the movement of traffic on the arterial road.

The traffic on the highway plies alternatively from Srinagar and Jammu during winter months in view of the ongoing work on the four-laning highway project.