Ramban, Oct 23: Vehicular traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway remained suspended due to overnight rains caused by fresh land and mudslides and shooting stones at various places between Nashri and Banihal in Ramban district.
This forced the authorities to suspend vehicular traffic on the highway from Saturday morning.
“Vehicular traffic would remain suspended on both sides of the Srinagar-Jammu national highway on Sunday also in view of the inclement weather predictions,” Deputy Commissioner RambanMussarat Islam tweeted. “No vehicular traffic will be allowed from either side on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in view of the inclement weather conditions for the next 24 hours by the MeT department.”
Official sources said that all the vehicular traffic was stopped at Qazigund and Udhampur but some Srinagar-bound load carriers and passenger vehicles were stranded between Ramban and Chanderkote whereas few Jammu-bound vehicles stranded in Ramban were cleared Saturday evening after men and machinery of a contractor company engaged by the National Highway Authority of Indian (NHAI) cleared the landslides and prepared a single-lane road at Cafeteria MorhRamban.
The officials said that as a precaution for saving life and property travelling on the highway, the movement of vehicular traffic was being suspended temporarily and the vehicles were being allowed to move after assessing the situation of the road between Nashri and Banihal.
Deputy Commissioner Mussrat Islam, Senior Superintendent of Traffic Police, National Highway, RambanShabir Ahmed Malik and other district officers who were seen monitoring road restoration work at Cafeteria MorhRamban and other places said that the highway restoration work was under progress at several places between Banihal and Nashri sector of the highways.
They asked the concerned road maintenance agencies of NH1A to keep available their men and machinery at various other places between Banihal and Nashri on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway.