Recurring landslides at Digdole put admin, traffic police in quandary

Recurring landslides hitting Jammu-Srinagar National Highway at Digdol area here have put the district administration and Traffic police in quandary. The only all-weather road that connects Kashmir with rest of the country has not been “restored fully” for the vehicular movement since last Wednesday, when several landslides blocked the highway.

And, owing to a fresh landslide that hit the highway onTuesday morning at Digdol, around 3000 Srinagar-Jammu bound vehicles, includingsome 300 light motor vehicles, remained stranded on around 20 kilometers ofroad stretch in the Ramban district till late in the evening. 

   

Not only the Jammu-bound vehicles, but trucks carryingessential commodities to Kashmir were stuck on the National Highway thus causingimmense shortage of the commodities in the Valley in the holy month ofRamadan. 

People living along the highway, particularly Ramban,Ukhral, Ramsoo, and Banihal, are the worst sufferers due to the frequent jamson the National Highway-44, as the school going children are not reaching theirinstitutions on time and elderly citizens and patients are facing extremehardships in reaching the hospitals. 

However, the men and machinery have been working day in andday out to clear the debris from the NH-44 but the operations of road openingparties are not materializing, courtesy “ill-planned” cutting of hills atDigdol by the contractors, that has made the muck of a steep hill lose andlandslide prone.

“Every time it rains, this stretch (Digdol area) witnesseslandslides and heavy boulders fall on the main road. Routinely, it is followedby the clearance works. Has anyone in the administration ever tried toascertain the reasons behind the frequent landslides? No, they haven’t,” aretired revenue official told Greater Kashmir.

According to him, the local contractors dug the hillswithout giving slopes, which is mandatory to carry out excavations and thedigging of hills at an angle of ninety degree. “This has made the entiremountains vulnerable. This (landslides and shooting stones) wouldn’t stop untiland unless entire mountain caves in,” he said.

A police officer, however, said that they are planning tocut the mountain from upper side in slopes “but that would also be possibleonce the weather improves and incidents of shooting stones and landslidesstop”.

Pertinently, after the highway remained shut for around fourdays in the last week, authorities had restored one-way traffic on the roadfrom Srinagar towards Jammu since Sunday night, and several Jammu-boundvehicles crossed the Digdol stretch until Tuesday morning, when anotherlandslide hit the highway, forcing authorities to close it for the vehicularmovement.

On Tuesday the highway was closed and thrown open for theone-way movement of the vehicles several times since morning. When this reportwas filed, the stranded vehicles were crossing the landslide hit area atsnail’s pace.   

Meanwhile, Director General of Police, Dilbag Singh, alongwith Inspector General of Police, traffic Alok Kumar, on Tuesday visitedDigdole landslide site to take stock of the situation arising due tointermittent blockade of the highway. 

After reaching Chanderkote via chopper, the J&K Policechief told the traffic cops and road opening party there: “This highway is theonly all-weather road that connects Kashmir with rest of the country and itshouldn’t remain closed.”

The DGP also asked the traffic police personnel tocoordinate with each other and work in tandem to ensure that people don’tsuffer.

The DGP was accompanied by IGP Traffic, Alok Kumar; SSPtraffic, JS Johar and SSP Ramban, Anita Sharma. 

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