Srinagar: J&K State Road Transportation Corporation (SRTC) buses, ferrying stranded passengers, were on Wednesday allowed to move from Srinagar to Jammu on 270 km-long national highway, the only road connecting Kashmir valley with rest of the country.
The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was closed for civilian traffic and only vehicles carrying essential commodities were allowed from Monday till March 31 to curtail spread of Coronavirus.
“On Wednesday, people, who were stranded in Srinagar, were ferried to Jammu in SRTC buses through Kashmir highway,” a traffic police official told UNI.
He said later in the day, empty trucks and tankers would be allowed to move towards Jammu on the highway.
The official said that the decision to allow SRTC buses on the highway was taken following requests by people stranded in Srinagar.
The highway was closed on Tuesday due to landslide. However, he said the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) pressed into service sophisticated machines and cleared the landslides. “After receiving green signal from officials on the ground traffic was allowed on the highway,” he added.
Frequent closure of the highway since its expansion has been a major cause of concern for the people living in Kashmir valley, where suspension of traffic results in increase in the rates of essential commodities by any folds.
