Ramban: Frequent landslides and shooting stones along with single-lane road stretches on the Mehar-Cafeteria stretch of Ramban disrupted vehicular traffic on both sides of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway for several hours on Tuesday too.
Traffic officials said that the highway after remaining blocked on Monday night was restored for two-way traffic of stranded Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) and one-way traffic of stranded Heavy Motor Vehicles (HMVs) for Jammu on Tuesday at 10 am.
However, they said that the highway after remaining open for a brief period was blocked on several occasions during the day on Tuesday.
Traffic officials said that the traffic resumed Tuesday at noon.
Official sources said that vehicular traffic on both sides of the highway came to a grinding halt due to the continuous triggering of rolling stones on the Mehar-Cafeteria stretch of Ramban on Monday evening.
They said that the highway was restored for stranded traffic after the concerned road maintenance agency, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) cleared the road at Mehar-Cafeteria stretch on Tuesday at 10 am but the highway after remaining open for a brief period was disrupted on several occasions till 5 pm.
Traffic officials monitoring the regulation of traffic in Ramban said that despite disruption hundreds of LMVs were cleared on priority.
They said that the stranded Jammu-bound HMVs were being cleared.
Earlier, due to the blockade of roads on the Mehar Cafeteria stretch, hundreds of vehicles remained stranded at different locations on the highway from Monday evening till Tuesday afternoon.
Few ambulances and LMVs were diverted through Ramban’s old alignment road to bypass the Mehar-Cafeteria stretch during the day.
However, HMVs remained stranded at various locations till the road was restored.
SSP Traffic National Highway Ramban, Mohita Sharma while updating the status of the highway late Tuesday evening tweeted that shooting stones continued for the entire day on Mehar-Cafeteria stretch as authorities struggled to clear the stranded vehicles.
“We tried to allow them on a one-by-one basis but shooting stones did not provide breathing space,” she said. “LMVs are advised not to travel at night as it is unsafe amidst shooting stones.”
Earlier, vehicles remained stuck for hours on the highway after rolling stones came on the highway that hampered the inflow of vehicular traffic on both sides of the highway till men and machinery of the NHIA were summoned.
Although the contractor tried to clear the road immediately, shooting stones hampered restoration work for a few hours.
The stones were occasionally rolling down from the hillock on the Mehar-Cafeteria stretch for the last many days.
However, a Traffic official monitoring regulation of traffic at Mehar, Ramban said that after clearing the landslide and stones, vehicles were allowed to move with caution.
He said that the landslide and shooting stones were still occurring from the hillock on the Mehar Cafeteria stretch.
The traffic official said that men and machinery had been kept on standby mode to clear the slide and stones near the spot.