Thousands of stranded vehicles were cleared off the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway on Wednesday despite rocks sliding intermittently from a hillock overlooking the strategic road, officials said.
The 270-km highway, the only all-weather road connectingKashmir with the rest of the country, was closed for vehicular traffic onTuesday morning following multiple landslides in Digdole area of Rambandistrict.
The highway was reopened for vehicles early Wednesday aftera 15-hour clearance operation but a fresh slide and intermittent shooting ofstones hampered the movement of traffic, the officials said.
“The movement of vehicles was better compared to theprevious couple of days. Over 4,000 stranded vehicles were cleared from bothsides during the day,” Deputy Superintendent of Police, Traffic, inRamban, Suresh Sharma said.
Vehicles on the highway usually run alternatively from thetwin capitals of Srinagar and Jammu in view of the ongoing four-laning.
Residents blamed construction companies for the frequentclosure of the highway, alleging that the poorly planned and slow pace of workare the main reasons for the present status of the highway.
Several videos, meanwhile, are making rounds on the socialmedia showing stranded commuters risking their lives to cross the landslide-hitareas.”We are taking extreme precautions whileallowing the vehicles through the problematic zones,” Sharma said,requesting the commuters to cooperate with the traffic police to avoid anyuntoward incident.