Jammu, March 6
Fresh landslides triggered by overnight rain and snow in Udhampur and Ramban stretches forced closure of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway for the second day today even as stones shooting down the hills along the road injured 15 persons, official sources said here.
“The 300-km national highway is closed for the second day and efforts are being made to reopen it to allow over 660 stranded vehicles to pass,” sources said.
The men and machines of the Border Road Organisation had cleared all seven landslides in the Panthal and Nathli areas in the Ramban-Banihal sector of the highway this morning, they said.
The traffic authorities had also allowed few stranded vehicles to move towards Srinagar, but fresh landslides in the Panthal area and Samroli in Udhampur blocked the highway again, they said.
As many as 15 persons, most of them BRO workers, were injured due to shooting of stones from the hill and were hospitalised, they said.
Authorities feel that resumption of traffic on the highway would be dangerous in view of the boulders rolling down at Panthal due to a fresh spell of snowfall in the upper reaches of the valley and continuous overnight rains in the plains, they said.
“The highway is likely to be reopened for traffic tomorrow or the day after as the landslides and shooting of stones is not only causing threat to the life of the BRO staff but also creating hurdles in the highway clearing,” they said.
Eight to nine inches of snow had accumulated on the road near the Jawahar tunnel and in the adjoining areas till this morning, the spokesman said adding 372 vehicles that had left Srinagar on way to Jammu since Friday were stranded at various places.
However, no vehicle was allowed to move towards to Srinagar from the Nagrota toll post today, they said.
The arterial road, which links Kashmir with rest of the country, was partially opened to traffic on Tuesday after remaining closed for about 15 days with residents of the valley facing acute shortage of essential commodities.
The Jammu-Doda inter-district road was also closed to traffic and over 300 vehicles were stranded on road and efforts were on to clear the landslides at Thatri and Samroli, they said.
— PTI
