The Jammu-Srinagar national highway was opened for traffic on Sunday evening after it was closed for maintenance work throughout the day.
The 270-km highway, which is the only all-weather roadlinking Kashmir with the rest of the country, was blocked by a massivelandslide near Higni-Ramsoo in Ramban district around 9 am on Saturday, leavingthousands of Jammu-bound vehicles stranded.
After a day-long hectic effort, the highway was cleared ofthe blockade and some stranded vehicles were allowed to move late Saturdayevening, the officials said.
However, they said no fresh vehicle was either allowed fromJammu or Srinagar throughout the day to allow maintenance of the road which wasdamaged by the landslides and shooting stones from the hillocks overlooking thehighway at various places between Panthiyal and Ramsoo over the past week.
“In view of maintenance of the highway, no vehicularmovement including that of security forces was allowed from either side of thehighway on Sunday,” a traffic department official said adding that theJammu-bound stranded vehicles would be cleared first once the road is madenavigable again.
He said a decision to allow the vehicular traffic would betaken later in the day after a fresh review of the condition of the road and weatherprediction. Stranded vehicles were allowed to move on Sunday evening.The weatherman has forecast widespread rain andsnow across Jammu and Kashmir over the next two days.