Traffic movement on the 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway resumed on Sunday after being suspended for over 30 hours owing to snowfall in the Qazigund-Banihal sector and landslides in Ramban, officials said.
The highway was closed for traffic around 4.30 am on Saturday and debris was cleared at over a dozen places between Chanderkote and Ramsu, but a fresh landslide at Magerkote in Ramban around 5 am delayed the resumption of traffic movement, Senior Superintendent of Police, Traffic (National Highway) Shabir Ahmad Malik said.
He said the road clearance agencies pressed personnel and machinery again on Sunday morning and took several hours to finally restore vehicular traffic on the highway — the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country.
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A massive traffic jam was witnessed at the Nagrota bypass in Jammu after the traffic police stopped light motor vehicles (LMVs) carrying passengers from Jammu to Srinagar on Sunday morning. Traffic movement was restored around noon, the officials said.
They said a similar situation was seen at Qazigund in south Kashmir where all Jammu-bound traffic was halted this morning due to the closure of the highway.
"After the road clearance operation was completed, traffic was first allowed from Jammu towards Srinagar. Later, vehicular movement was also allowed from Qazigund towards Jammu," the SSP said.
The Banihal-Qazigund sector of the highway experienced snowfall on Friday-Saturday night, while landslides and shooting of stones from the hillocks were triggered by heavy rains at Rompadi-Banihal, Shalgardh-Wagan, Moumpassi-Ramsu, Panthiyal, Digdole, Maroog, Monkey Morh, Cafeteria Morh and Mehar in Raman district.
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The closure of the highway left a large number of trucks stranded at different places which were allowed to move towards their respective destinations later on Sunday, the officials said.
With PTI inputs.
