Ramban: Despite light rain at scattered places between Udhampur and Banihal, the Srinagar- Jammu National Highway will remain open for vehicular traffic movement on Thursday, Traffic Police advisory said.
Traffic officials said that hundreds of light medium passenger vehicles were allowed to ply on the both sides whereas hundreds of load carriers, oil and gas tankers were allowed to ply towards Kashmir on the highway on Wednesday.
They said hundreds of heavy and medium load carriers carrying essential commodities, diesel, petrol and gas tankers crossed landslide prone Ramban-Banihal sector of the highway and are heading towards Kashmir.
As already reported, the Meteorological Department on Wednesday predicted light to moderate rainfall in Jammu and Kashmir during the next 24 hours.
The light rain that started at isolated places in landslide prone Nashri Banihal sectors of the highway Wednesday noon despite that the movement of traffic remained uninterrupted on the highway.
Till filing of this report, the highway remained open with hundreds of vehicles, mostly load carriers on the way to Valley were crossing Ramban -Banihal stretch of highway.
The Traffic Police headquarters issued advisory for Thursday stating that “subject to fair weather and good road conditions passenger light motor vehicles,private cars shall be allowed from both sides on the highway whereas Heavy Motor Vehicles shall be allowed to move towards Jammu from Qazigund through Banihal-Qazigund Tunnel after assessing traffic situation on highway on Wednesday,”.
The cut off timing for the Light Motor Vehicles, private cars has been fixed 7:30 am to 11:30 am from Nagrota Jammu and from Jakhani (Udhampur) 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, the advisory said.
The cut off timings for the Jammu bound Light Motor Vehicles has been fixed 11:30am to 2 pm from Qazigund, it said.
“They advised the operators of private cars and other passenger Light Motor Vehicles to use the Jawahar Tunnel route up to 2 pm.
Heavy Motor Vehicles shall be allowed to move towards Jammu from Qazigund after assessing the traffic situation on the highway on Sunday.
The Amarnath Yatris and tourists are advised to travel in Kashmir valley only between 7 am to 6 pm and must plan their travel accordingly to reach their destinations within a given time.
In case of yatris , tourists must reach their destinations within stipulated time i.e. 6 pm the security forces shall make such yatris tourists halt for the night at the nearest lodgment center.
People are advised to undertake journeys on National Highway only after confirming status of the road from traffic control units of Jammu Srinagar and Ramban,” the Traffic advisory said.