Srinagar-Jammu national highway closed, Leh, Mughal roads through for traffic

Srinagar, Aug 25: The national highway, connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, has been closed on Saturday due to landslides, triggered by rain on Friday night while Srinagar-Leh and historic Mughal roads are open for traffic.
Meanwhile, hundreds of trucks, carrying fruits, essentials, oil tankers and passenger vehicles are stranded on the highway.
A traffic police official told UNI that the highway was closed for traffic movement following landslides and shooting stone at Ramsu Magarkote.
He said the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), responsible for the maintenance of the only all weather road linking Kashmir with rest of the country, has put into service sophisticated machine and men to restore the traffic.
‘We will allow traffic on the highway only after receiving green signal from the BRO and traffic police officials posted on the highway,’ he said. However, he made it clear that fresh vehicles will be allowed from Jammu or Srinagar only after all stranded vehicles are cleared.
Official sources said that hundreds of vehicles, particularly trucks loaded with fruit from different parts of the Kashmir valley to different mandis in the country are stranded on the highway. Similarly, trucks carrying essentials for Kashmir are also stranded at different places.
Large number of passenger vehicles are also stranded on the highway, sources added.
Meanwhile, the 86-km-long historic Mughal road, connecting Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region was open for traffic. Ligh Motor Vehicle (LMV) traffic will continue to ply from both sides while Heavy Motor Vehicle (HMV) will ply from Shopian to Rajouri and Poonch on Saturday and no HVM will be allowed from opposition direction.
Traffic was plying normally on the national highway, the only road connecting Ladakh with Kashmir.
UNI