Ramban, Mar 10: The movement of traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was disrupted due to a fresh landslide and road repair work at Dalwass on Sunday.
The road restoration work is being hampered due to massive mud and slush at Dalwass.
Senior Superintendent of Traffic Police, National Highway, Ramban, Rohit Baskotra said the highway was partially restored for stranded traffic after the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) completed the scheduled road repair works at Dalwass and other locations on Sunday afternoon.
He said that after the highway remained open for two and half hours, a fresh landslide occurred Sunday afternoon and blocked the road at Dalwass, making the carriageway way single there.
Baskotra said that due to massive mud and slush, road restoration work was hampered.
He said efforts were being made to clear the stranded vehicles.
An engineer of the NHAI monitoring road restoration work at Dalwass said, “We are trying to stabilise the stretch by laying muck and pebbles.”
Earlier during the day, the traffic authorities said that due to acute slow movement at Dalwass, no Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) would be allowed from Qazigund towards Jammu and from Nagrota, Jammu, towards Srinagar after 5:30 pm on Sunday.
They said that a fresh landslide occurred late Sunday afternoon at Dalwass, making the carriageway single there.
People have been advised to follow lane driving to avoid congestion.
Officials said that vehicular traffic on both sides was suspended on Saturday evening for 14 hours due to road widening works at narrow road stretches at Dalwass, Mehar-Cafeteria, Panththyal, Nachlana, and various other locations between Nashri and Banihal.
A 14-hour sanction was granted to NHAI by the administration to carry out necessary road repair works at problematic stretches at Dalwass, Mehar-Cafeteria, Panthyal, Nachlana, and various other locations, four-lane construction sites where massive mudslides and shooting stones had damaged road stretches during heavy rains in the last week of February and first week of March 2024, forcing the authorities to restrict the traffic to one-way between the two capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu on February 26.
Since then, traffic has been plying on alternate days between Srinagar and Jammu due to which vehicle operators and commuters are facing problems.
Officials said that the contractor companies of the NHAI carried out road widening work at Dalwass, Mehar-Cafeteria, Panthyal, Nachlana, and other places.
They removed accumulated landslides, stones, and boulders and filled potholes at several places between Nashri and Banihal till Sunday afternoon.
The traffic officials said that the traffic was restored after the concerned road maintenance agency of the NHAI completed the scheduled road widening and repair works.
However, they said that the movement of traffic was disrupted after a fresh landslide hit the road at Dalwass and made the carriageway single.
They said that all the Srinagar and Jammu vehicles were stopped at Qazigund in Kashmir and Nagrota in Jammu on Sunday.
Traffic authorities said that efforts were being made to clear the stranded traffic.
They said that the movement of traffic was extremely slow at Dalwass near the Chenani-Nashri tunnel.