Ramban, Apr 24: Thousands of people were stranded on the Srinagar-Jammu highway on Tuesday due to massive traffic jam after closure of the road in view of landslides at three places.
Official sources said that the vehicular movement was stopped on the highway following landslides at Seri, Chamba and Chamalwas this morning.
“Though the landslides were cleared after around five hours, long queues of vehicles on both sides of the highway created a complete chaos,” an official said adding that thousands of people were stranded on both sides of the road till late this evening.
“The road clearance process was delayed due to heavy rains,” Ram Singh, DySP Traffic (highway) Ramban, told Greater Kashmir adding that every effort was being made to clear the traffic jam.
However commuters alleged that the inefficiency of the authorities, including police, was the main reason for the mess. “The traffic is now moving with snail’s pace and it took me around three hours to cover a distance of 10 kilometers,” Abdul Rahim from Kashmir, who was stuck between Banihal and Ramban told Greater Kashmir.
Till late evening the jam almost brought the movement of the vehicles at a standstill as hundreds of vehicles were stranded between Banihal to Kud. “There does not seem to be any chance to ensure free flow of traffic,” a commuter at Batote said adding, “Vehicles moved bumper to bumper between Udhampur and Batote giving tough time to the passengers caught in the snarl.”
“It is raining heavily and it won’t be possible to clear the highway during night. We were trying to clear the stretch to facilitate the movement of light motor vehicles but it looks difficult,” IGP Traffic, H K Lohia, told Greater Kashmir.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST