Highway closed for third day, thousands stranded
Jammu: More than 5,000 people were stranded at various places on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway for the third consecutive day Tuesday after the surface link connecting the Valley with outside world remained closed.
“More than 5,000 people are stranded at various places on the national highway,” an officer at the traffic control room Ramban said.
The traffic police officials say that more than 2,000 vehicles, most of them passenger vehicles, continue to be stranded on the 300-km long national highway.
“More than 2,000 vehicles continue to remain stranded on the highway more than half of them are passenger vehicles,” SSP Traffic (National Highway) Sanjay Kotwal said.
Even as the weather conditions across the state have improved, it might take a while to throw the highway open for vehicular traffic.
“The highway has suffered a lot of damage due to massive landslides that were triggered by heavy rain and snowfall. It might take some more time to throw the road open,” the officer said.
Various stranded passengers said that they were facing hardships as the authorities, they say, have failed to help them.
“We don’t have anything to eat or drink, the administration has completely failed to help us. The children are without milk, we pray that the highway opens soon so that we can reach our destination,” said Khursheed Ahmed, one of the stranded passengers.