Ramban: Vehicular traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway remained suspended for six hours on Sunday.
Traffic authorities said that for making the carriageway double at Nashri and between Mehar to Cafeteria Morh, Ramban stretch of the highway, vehicular traffic remained suspended for six hours.
They said that the vehicular traffic suspended at 3 am resumed at 9 am.
On Saturday, the vehicular traffic on the highway also remained suspended for seven hours on the recommendations of the authorities for necessary repairs of the road and to make the carriageway double between Cafeteria Morh, Ramban to Mehar stretch of the highway.
A manager of the contractor company of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) said that the accumulated debris was removed from the Nashri slide, Cafeteria Morh to Mehar road stretches and a double-lane carriageway was prepared.
However, local commuters said that the Mehar to Cafeteria Morh road stretch was still narrow and two heavy vehicles cannot pass simultaneously on this stretch due to which they remained stuck in traffic jams on Sunday.
Traffic officials at Ramban said that hundreds of light and medium vehicles crossed towards their respective destinations whereas Jammu-bound heavy vehicles were still crossing the Banihal-Ramban stretch towards Jammu.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Traffic Police Headquarters issued a fresh advisory stating that subject to fair weather and better road conditions, private cars, passenger light, and medium vehicles would be allowed to ply on both sides of the highway while Heavy Motor Vehicles (HMVs) would be allowed to move towards Kashmir after assessing the road and traffic situation on the highway on Monday morning.
The cut-off timings for the Srinagar-bound Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) from Nagrota, Jammu has been fixed for 7 am to 12 pm and from Jakhani Udhampur from 8 am to 1 pm.
The cut-off timings for Jammu-bound LMVs from Qazigund, Kashmir has been fixed as 7 am to 12 pm.
The security forces were advised not to ply their vehicles against the advisory because of the possible traffic congestion due to the narrow carriageway between the Nashri and Banihal sectors of the highway. TCU Udhampur would liaise with TCU Ramban before releasing the HMVs on Monday.