Jammu: Srinagar- Jammu National Highway was partially restored after 16 hours of efforts to re-open it following the triggering of huge stone-slides and boulders that had blocked the movement of the vehicles at Samroli area and two-way light motor vehicle traffic will move on the road on Tuesday, officials said.
A portion of the highway was cleared to release the stranded Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) around 7: 30 pm following blasting of stone-slides at Samroli near Dewal Bridge in Udhampur district. Accordingly, the debris was removed from the highway , opening it partially, an official said.
“We are clearing all the LMV vehicles and later, the work to clear the highway completely will be restored for traffic,” said the official, informing that the Jammu-Srinagar will remain open for 2-way Light Motor Vehicle traffic on Tuesday.
It may be mentioned that at 2:30 am Monday, huge landslides,stone-slides blocked the highway completely leaving vehicular traffic stranded on both sides.
Following the stone slide, movement of vehicular traffic remained blocked on the highway.
An official in NHAI told Greater Kashmir that they were trying to open a single lane (oneside) of the highway by Monday evening.
Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur, Indu Kanwal Chib told Greater Kashmir that “the machines are on the job to remove the debris of the stone-slides and huge boulders. We are expecting restoration of alternative tubes on the highway by evening by 5 pm today,” the DC added.
“We are allowing trans-shift of the passengers (on foot). To facilitate their transportation, we have also arranged some minibuses from Udhampur for the passengers,” the DC added.
Meanwhile, SSP National Highway (Traffic) Shabir Ahmed Malik said that around 300 vehicles were stranded on the highway. These vehicles were heading for Jammu from Srinagar which he said will start moving gradually.
“The heavy machines are working to clear the highway. Our prime focus is to partially open the highway for free flow of the stranded traffic by this evening,” Malik said.
He said that “It may take two or more days to completely clear the debris from the highway. However, efforts are being made to partially restore the highway as early as possible.”