Srinagar: Hundreds of vehicles, including trucks carrying essential commodities and oil tankers, left Jammu for Kashmir early in the morning as only one-way traffic continue to ply on Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the road connecting the valley with the rest of the country, despite major improvement in the weather.
“On Sunday, traffic will ply from Jammu to Srinagar and no vehicle be allowed from opposite direction,” a traffic police official told UNI this morning.
He said Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) were allowed to move in the morning while Heavy Motor Vehicles (HMVs) will be allowed in the afternoon. “Only one-way traffic will continue on the highway till further orders,” he said.
One-way traffic has proven to be a success and for the past more than over two weeks, traffic ply normally on the highway, which otherwise was witnessing heavy traffic jam for hours.
Meanwhile, snow clearance operation continued for the third successive day on the 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh national highway, the only road connecting Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh with Kashmir valley. The highway remained closed due to accumulation of 6 feet to 12 feet of snow for the past about three months.
However, the 86-km-long historic Mughal road, linking Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region and Anantnag-Kishtwar road remained closed for the past about three months.
“Snow clearance operation on the Srinagar-Leh national highway started from Friday today, about a month earlier following improvement in the weather, official sources told UNI.
They said sophisticated machines and trained men were put into service this morning from Gagangeer to clear the accumulated snow towards Sonamarg, the last halting station on this side of the Zojila pass on the highway. “Once the 12-km-long stretch is cleared, snow clearance operation will commence towards Zojila pass, they added. However, due to threat of avalanches, extra precautionary measures have been taken to prevent any accident during snow clearance operation,” they said.
The Government of India (GoI) has sanctioned two tunnels at Gagangeer and Zojila to make Srinagar-Leh national highway all weather road.
