Srinagar-Leh highway closed due to landslides
The national highway, connecting Ladakh region with Kashmir, has been closed since Tuesday afternoon due to landslides resulting in the interruption of the traffic movement, while the 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu and historic Mughal roads are through for traffic.
Traffic on the 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh national highway was suspended, following the landslides at Shaitan Nallah between Sonamarg in central Kashmir to Drass stretch, a traffic police official told UNI.
He said after the massive landslides, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) immediately pressed into service sophisticated machines and men to put through the traffic. ”We are on the job,” he said, adding that traffic will be resumed only after receiving green signal from the traffic police officials posted at different places and BRO.
A large number of Ladakh-bound vehicles have been stopped at Sonamarg on this side of Zojila tunnel. Similarly, Kashmir-bound vehicles have been stopped at Drass and other places, official source said. ”We are allowing traffic from 0500 hrs since morning from Ladakh to Kashmir,” he said, adding that the vehicles from from the other side of Zojila are being allowed to move.
Passenger and Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) are being allowed to move from both the sides on the national highway, linking the Kashmir valley with rest of the country. Heavy Motor Vehicles (HMVs) will continue to ply one-way only to avoid traffic jam and accident. HMVs will ply from Jammu to Srinagar only and no vehicle, including security force convoy, would be allowed from the opposite direction, he said.
National Highway 1D (NH 1D), also known as Srinagar-Leh Highway, was a National Highway entirely within the state of Jammu & Kashmir in North India that connected Srinagar to Leh in Ladakh. It was one of the only two roads that connected Ladakh with the rest of India, the other being Leh-Manali Highway. The Srinagar-Leh Highway was declared as National Highway in 2006. This highway was used as mobilisation route by the Indian Army during Pakistani occupation of Kargil in 1999, known as Operation Vijay.
