Srinagar-bound traffic from Jammu restored partially

With Kashmir Valley staring at the shortage of essential commodities, traffic was thrown open — after days — from Jammu towards Srinagar side on Tuesday morning.

A traffic official informed that up traffic from Jammu towards Srinagar was thrown open early morning. “No light motor vehicle (LMV) was allowed after 11 am. Heavy motor vehicles (HMVs) with supplies that were stuck in Udhampur were allowed to proceed after 11 am,” said officials.

HMVs continued to move towards Srinagar till evening. Rainfall was reported in Udhampur area during the afternoon but that did not trigger any new landslides.

No vehicles were allowed from Srinagar towards Jammu side due to poor condition of the road in Udhampur district.

Traffic on two links to the Valley, including Mughal Road and Sinthan road, was allowed. The traffic police asked commuters not to travel against the travel advisory on Jammu-Srinagar NH and maintain lane discipline.

On the other hand, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Jammu, in a communication to Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road, Transport and Highways, raised serious concern about the dilapidated condition and severe damage caused to national highway from Lakhanpur onwards up to Srinagar due to recent heavy rain, cloudbursts and flashfloods. Arun Gupta, president of the chamber, demanded that concrete steps should be taken to address these problems at the earliest.

Gupta further said that the national highway at many points has been washed away especially in Udhampur where a significant portion of 300m has been washed away, hampering the movement of traffic.

“Besides this, many bridges have been damaged adding to the transportation difficulty. Landslides and mudslides are a persistent problem in the region, with the Tharad and Balli Nallah areas near Udhampur being particularly affected. This has buried parts of the highway under a moving hill,” Gupta said.

Gupta said that in absence of proper road connectivity and free movement of vehicles, traders and industrialists are not in a position to carry on their regular business smoothly. “The present period is a festival season and maximum number of pilgrims/tourists visit here during the festival season, besides this being a fruit season for Chenab valley /Kashmir valley. The closure of the national highway will cripple the apple trade of J&K” Gupta said.