SRINAGAR: Traffic on the national highway, the only all weather road connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, remained suspended for the second straight day on Wednesday due to land and mudslides and shooting stones, triggered by rain.
Meanwhile, hundreds of vehicles, including those carrying passengers, are stranded on the highway.
The national highway, the only road connecting Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh with Kashmir, historic Mughal road and Anantnag-Kishtwar road remained closed due to accumulation of snow and avalanches.
A traffic police official said this morning that no traffic was allowed on the highway from Jammu or Srinagar for the second day today.
He said rain during the past few days triggered massive landslides at Cafeteria Morh, Sitaram Passi and Digdol and shooting stones at several places and mudslides at Sherbibi and Shabanbass.
Though National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has pressed into service machines and men to put through the highway. However, continued land,mudslides and shooting stone due to rain has hampered the road clearance operation.
Decision to resume traffic on the highway will be taken only after assessing the condition of the road and green signal received from NHAI and traffic police officials posted at different places, he said.
Meanwhile, there was fresh snowfall at several places during the past 24 hours on the national highway connecting Ladakh with Kashmir valley which remained closed since January Ist, 2021.
However, Beacon had cleared the snow and declared the highway open on February 28 only to suspend traffic again after few hours due to fresh snowfall and avalanches.
Traffic to Sonamarg was also suspended due to snowfall. However, traffic was allowed from Srinagar to tourist resort of Sonamarg on the highway after remaining suspended for about a week.
The historic 86-km-long Mughal road which remained closed for any traffic or pedestrian movement since December last year.
There are many avalanche prone areas on the road, connecting Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region.
The Anantnag-Kishtwar road also remained closed due to accumulation of snow.
