Ramban: The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway after remaining blocked on the Mehar-Cafeteria stretch for the entire day was partially restored for stranded vehicles late Wednesday evening.
Official sources said frequent triggering of landslides and rolling stones continuously disrupted movement of vehicular traffic on both sides of the highway on Mehar and Cafeteria Morh stretch in Ramban for the entire day on Wednesday.
Traffic officials said frequent triggering of shooting stones near the Mehar, Cafeteria ahead of Ramban halted vehicular traffic movement on the ever-busy highway on Wednesday morning.
However, it was restored for stranded traffic late Wednesday evening, they said.
The traffic officials said that earlier during the day, hundreds of Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) remained stranded at various locations on the highway till it was restored late evening.
They said that LMVs stranded at various locations were being cleared via Ramban’s old alignment road to bypass the Mehar-Cafeteria stretch.
Deputy Superintendent Traffic Police National Highway Ramban, Iftikhar Ahmed told Greater Kashmir that the highway was partially restored for stranded traffic late Wednesday evening.
Traffic officials regulating the movement of traffic said that shooting stones were still rolling from the hillock despite that they were trying to clear the scheduled Kashmir-bound HMVs and Jammu-bound traffic with utmost caution at Cafeteria Morh, Mehar stretch of the highway.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Traffic Police Headquarters issued an advisory stating that subject to fair weather and good road conditions, LMVs would be allowed to ply on either side while a decision regarding the movement of HMVs would be taken on Thursday after an assessment of the road situation.
After the restoration of traffic, there was chaos on the highway due to traffic jams and the drivers from both sides were blowing horns unnecessarily to get space on the highway.
Police and Traffic Police were trying to streamline the traffic that was haphazardly moving on the highway.
The vehicles were moving at a snail’s pace on the highway, however, commuters and drivers got some relief after 7:30 pm.