After remaining closed for over 42 hours following a massive landslide in Ramban district, the Jammu-Srinagar highway was cleared on Monday, traffic department said.
The 270-km long highway was blocked due to the landslide leaving thousands of vehicles stranded. The officials also told that no fresh movement of vehicles was allowed even after the opening of the highway in order to facilitate the smooth movement of stranded commuters.
On Saturday evening, a massive traffic jam was occurred on the Highway due to a massive landslide at Digdole. The jam was cleared after a hectic effort by the road clearance agencies spanning for over 42 hours. The road was cleared of the debris and made it traffic worthy on Monday morning to allow the movement, the officials said.
As per the officials, the decision to allow the movement of traffic from either side will be taken later in the day.
However, the traffic is restricted to one-way movement only during the winter season and ply alternatively from Srinagar and Jammu to avoid the traffic jam as the construction work to four-lane the Highway is underway.
The Highway was affected on Friday as well as the fresh snowfall on Jawahar Tunnel, the gateway to Kashmir, and multiple landslides between Ramsoo and Panthiyal in Ramban district forced the closure of highway.
It was cleared on Saturday but a fresh landslide at Digdole again disrupted the traffic.
Jammu is facing severe cold conditions as the citizens wake up to a chilly morning with the temperature settling down two degrees below the season’s average. On Monday morning, the temperature at Jammu was recorded at 6.2 degrees Celcius, which is down by 2.5 notches compared to last night, an official of meteorological department said.
The official also told that Katra recorded a minimum temperature of 5.7 degrees Celsius against the previous night’s 6.2 degree Celsius.
The snowbound Bhaderwah town in Doda district was the coldest place in Jammu region with a low of minus 1.8 degrees Celsius.