Bandipora, Feb 19: The residents of Gurez Valley in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district are demanding the early opening of the road given the less precipitation this season.
The locals from Gurez said that with the opening of the Gurez-Bandipora road, the dearth of fresh vegetables and other eatables that they were facing could be met.
They said that the road opening would also help people having any exigency to travel out from Gurez.
Head of the Sarpanch Association, Abdul Raheem Mir said that they had been requesting the authorities to open the road early this year for the greater good of the local population.
“The snowfall in Gurez has been comparatively less this year. Given the clear weather conditions, the authorities should make efforts to throw open the Gurez-Bandipora road,” Mir said. “Usually, at this time of the year, Dawar used to have 6-feet snow but this year it’s just around one and a half feet.”
The locals said that Dawar-Tualil road was already open and passenger vehicles were plying to and fro.
They said that a 6-7 km road stretch was yet to be cleared of snow.
The Border Road Organisation (BRO) officials said that the clearance operation was temporarily halted due to inclement weather prediction and would restart on February 21.
They said that the idea was to throw open the Gurez-Bandipora road by March 7.
The officials said that it would be an early opening as last year the road reopened on April 4.