Traffic disruptions not heading to any dead end on Jammu-Srinagar highway even after the opening of T5 tunnel at Panthyal necessitate the completion of the remaining part of the Ramban-Banihal track of the highway even before the set deadlines. Experience of travel on Jammu-Srinagar highway show that reducing the travel time from Jammu to Srinagar is not as important as is the disruption free traffic on Jammu-Srinagar highway for which the completion of the remaining part of the Ramban-Banihal track is very crucial. Keeping in view the pace of work on Ramban-Banihal track of the highway the work executed on this mega highway projected by the National Highway Authority Of India (NHIA) if monitored well by the Jammu & Kashmir Government could be completed even before the deadline fixed for the completion of this key road project next year. Knowing that the completion of Jammu-Srinagar highway is crucial more for the transportation of supplies to Kashmir and Ladhak than for travel of tourists and trade, it is for the Jammu & Kashmir Government to monitor intensely the progress of the work on the remaining part of this mega highway project to ensure it’s completion even before the deadline fixed for the completion of this key road project. What matters the most is the fact that while work on this key highway started way back in 2011 could not be completed for the last eleven years, the National Highway Authority of India (NHIA) executing the four lane highway project for it’s own technical convenience completed only two extreme ends of the highway before taking up the work on the most difficult middle part of the highway from Ramban to Banihal.
Though completion of T5 tunnel after it’s intense monitoring by none else than the Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta himself and it’s opening for traffic recently has eased the travel from Jammu to Srinagar but still disruptions in traffic movement triggered by the mudslides and landslides on the highway continue which won’t obviously end till the completion of the remaining part of the Ramban-Banihal track known for it’s vulnerability to landslides both during peak winter months and as well as rainy periods in the months of March and April. By all standards of understandabilities the completion of the four lane Jammu-Srinagar highway project if completed before the commencement of next winter in November could be the major achievement of the Jammu & Kashmir under the leadership of Lt Governor Manoj Sinha.
Keeping in view the fact that work on Jammu-Udhampur and Srinagar-Qazigund track could be completed in a time span of four years each taking the total completion of the two extreme ends of the project to more than eight years, the work on the middle part of the highway from Ramban to Banihal due to it’s vulnerability to mudslides and landslides from high peak mountain can taken even more longer time if the work is not intensely monitored well by the Jammu & Kashmir Government. Though completion of T5 tunnel after it’s intense monitoring by none else than the Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta himself and it’s opening for traffic recently has eased the travel from Jammu to Srinagar but still disruptions in traffic movement triggered by the mudslides and landslides on the highway continue which won’t obviously end till the completion of the remaining part of the Ramban-Banihal track known for it’s vulnerability to landslides both during peak winter months and as well as rainy periods in the months of March and April. By all standards of understandabilities the completion of the four lane Jammu-Srinagar highway project if completed before the commencement of next winter in November could be the major achievement of the Jammu & Kashmir under the leadership of Lt Governor Manoj Sinha.
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