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Jammu-Srinagar Highway closed for second consecutive day

Srinagar: The Kashmir valley remained cut off from the rest of the country for the second day today due to closure of 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu National Highway due to snowfall and slippery road condition.

Thousands of the passengers, drivers and truckers remained stranded at different places on the highway, linking Kashmir valley with the rest of the country.

A traffic spokesman told here that highway remained closed because of snowfall between Qazigund to Banihal. The road is also very slippery, he said.

Official sources said that about 1 to 2 feet of snow had accumulated between Qazigund-Jawahar Tunnel and Banihal forcing authorities to suspend the traffic movement due to threat of snow avalanches.

The Border Road Organisation, responsible for the maintenance of the highway has pressed into service men and sophisticated machines to make the highway traffic worthy.

The authorities also used salt to defreeze the frozen snow on the road at different places. The traffic spokesman said the traffic will be allowed on the highway only after receiving green signal from the officials deployed at different places on the road.

However he said no fresh vehicle will be allowed from Jammu or Srinagar until all the stranded vehicles are cleared.

They said thousands of passengers and others in more than two thousand vehicles including truckers are stranded at different places including Qazigund, Banihal, Ramban, Botate, Kud and Udhampur since yesterday morning.

The stranded passengers complained about shortage of food and other essentials though the authorities claimed to have made arrangements for them. They also complained about price rise of eatables by the shopkeepers.

Dozens of villages, including Machil, Keran, Karnah and Neeru were cut off from the rest of the state after the Sadhna and Razdan passes were closed due to heavy snowfall.

About two dozen passengers in four vehicles, who were caught in snow storm at Sadna Pass, were rescued by the Army and BECON personals yesterday.

The 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh national highway remained closed since December last year due to heavy snowfall and slippery road conditions at Zojila, Captain Morh and Zero line.