The 434-km long Srinagar-Leh national highway is likely to reopen by the end of this month after Border Roads Organisation (BRO) completed the snow clearance on the highest motorable Zojilla Pass in record time this year.
The highway was closed in December last year following heavysnowfall. The 122 RCC, Project Beacon and Project Vijayak of BRO responsiblefor maintaining the road started the snow clearance work on the highway fromGagengar-Sonamarg and Drass respectively on February 20 this year. Theoperation was completed in “record” less than a month.
Captain Shubham Sood, officer in-charge from Beacon said thesnow clearance work on the highway was started on February 21.
He said men and machineryincluding several snow cutter machines and dozers were pressed into service,adding the the road has been cleared up to Zero Point on Zojila.
He said the road has beencleared much ahead of the scheduled time. “Last year, the snow clearance wasstarted in March and the highway was reopened in April. However this year weare much ahead compared to previous years and record of sorts in spite of thefact there is unprecedented snow accumulation in the region,” he said.
He said the toughest workfor snow clearance always remains on the 30-km road stretch up to Zero Point ofZojilla from Sonamarg. The stretch receives around 20 feet of snow.
He said the Beacon will now carry out repair and maintenancework on the road to make it motorable.
“Our priority is to connectLeh with rest of the country as early as possible and that will happen at theend of this month. However, the decision to reopen the road has to be taken bydivisional and district administration,” he said.
An official of Project Vijayak said they have almostcompleted snow clearance work from Drass upto Gumri in “record time.”