Srinagar-Leh remain shut; Mughal road reopens, Kashmir highway through

Srinagar:The national highway, linking the Ladakh region with the Kashmir valley, remained closed for the third day on Sunday though the 86-km-long historic Mughal road reopened on Sunday after two days closure due to snowfall and landslides.
The 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway was through for two-way Light Motor Vehicle (LMV) traffic while Heavy Motor Vehicle (HMV) will ply only one-way.
Traffic remained suspended on 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh national highway for the third day today due to accumulation of snow and slippery road condition, a traffic police official told UNI.
Fresh snowfall during the past two days at Sonamarg, Zojila, Meenmarg and Drass, the second coldest place in the world after Siberia forced authorities to suspend traffic, he said, adding as a precautionary measure to prevent any accident, traffic remained suspended.
Meanwhile, police has rescued a group of truckers who got trapped in snow on Srinagar-Leh national highway yesterday.
Police at Kargil received information that few truck drivers and conductors along with their vehicles had got trapped in snow covered Dropatikund area of Drass.
Police spokesman said after receiving this information, a police party of Police Post Meenamarg had embarked towards Dropatikund despite a difficult terrain and rescued the trapped drivers and conductors.
The Muoghal road, connecting Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region, reopened this morning after remaining closed for two days due to accumulation of snowfall and landslides at several places, including Pir-ki-Gali. Later authorities put into service sophisticated machines and cleared the snow and landslides. Today traffic will ply from Rajouri and Poonch to Shopian, he said.
The national highway, connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country was through for traffic.
He said LMVs will ply from both Srinagar and Jammu while HMVs will continue to ply one-way only. Today HMVs will ply from Srinagar to Jammu and no vehicle heavy vehicle will be allowed from opposite direction, he said.
However, he said people are requested to undertake the journey on the highway only after confirming the status of the road from Traffic Control Units (TCUs) set up in Srinagar, Ramban and Jammu.