Jammu, Jan 20: A massive traffic jam clogged the Srinagar-Jammu highway Sunday with hundreds of vehicles and thousands of commuters remaining stranded for hours together.
Reports and eyewitnesses said the traffic jam was stretched throughout the 300-km highway – only surface link to the Valley - causing massive inconvenience to commuters and halting all kinds of vehicles for hours together.
Officials had Saturday announced that traffic would ply from Jammu to Srinagar on Sunday. However, according to eyewitnesses, there were no control measures in place to keep check on the traffic movement and vehicles were seen moving from both the sides. “The vehicles stranded on the highway had made two lanes; that was actually the cause of the jam,” eyewitnesses said.
A group of commuters said it took them five hours to reach Batote from Kud. “The mess was such that it took us five hours to reach Batote. It usually takes us one hour at the most to reach the place. The highway was in complete mess today,” they said.
Hundreds of vehicles were stranded while no traffic cop could be seen to manage the affairs, reports said.
Srinagar-Jammu highway was Sunday reopened for one-way traffic after remaining closed for three days due to heavy snowfall on either side of the Pir Panchal range.
The highway was closed on Jan 17 as a precautionary measure in view of the expected snowfall. However, all the stranded vehicles were allowed to proceed to their respective destinations yesterday afternoon.
According to traffic officials in case of fair weather vehicles would move from Srinagar to Jammu on Monday.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 20 Jan 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 20 Jan 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:00:00 IST