The 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway reopened on Sunday after remaining closed for over 30 hours due to landslides and shooting stones triggered by heavy rains, officials said. “Over 500 stranded vehicles, mostly trucks, have been cleared from Jammu to Srinagar after the road was cleared of the debris. Dozens of stranded trucks were also allowed to move from Kashmir to Jammu,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Traffic, Shabir Ahmad Malik told PTI.
The highway was closed early Saturday after a massive landslide blocked the highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, near Cafetaria Morh besides shooting stones from the hillocks overlooking the arterial road between Maroog and Ramsu in Ramban district.
Malik said the road clearance operation was sped up early Sunday morning after improvement in the weather to reopen the highway, which was mainly blocked at Cafeteria Morh, Maroog, and Peera.
He said the road was cleared for one-way traffic in the afternoon and accordingly, the stranded vehicles were allowed first from Jammu to Srinagar and then Kashmir to Jammu.
“No fresh traffic was allowed from either Jammu or Srinagar,” the officer said, adding that subject to fair weather and better road conditions, light motor vehicles would be allowed from both sides on the highway.
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