The 270-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway will remain closed on Friday for maintenance of the only all weather road connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country.
However, vehicles deployed for District Development Council (DDC) and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) polls will be allowed to ply from Ramban to Khari and Ramsu and vice-versa on the highway, a traffic police official told UNI.
Meanwhile, the 86-km-long historic Mughal road, seen as alternative to Srinagar-Jammu highway also remained closed since Monday morning due to accumulation of snow and slippery road conditions.
He said no vehicle will be allowed from Jammu or Srinagar on the highway today to allow National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Border Roads Organisation (BRO), responsible for the maintenance highway to carry out necessary repair work of the road. Besides the agencies will also speed up work on road widening in the areas where only one vehicle can pass at present due to landslides.
Frequent closure of the highway due to landslides and shooting stones result in sharp rise of prices of essentials in the Kashmir valley. Transportation of fruit from valley to different mandis in the country also gets delayed resulting in loss to farmers. Later, the authorities decided to allow agencies to carry out maintenance of the road on every Friday till November 30 so that the highway remain open without frequent disruptions. Today is the last Friday as per notification issued by the authorities earlier.
However, the spokesman said that in view of the DDC and PRI elections, the NHAI will ensure free movement to election bound vehicles from Ramban to Khari and Ramsu and vice-versa. No other vehicle will be allowed to ply, he said.
He said Mughal road, connecting Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region will also remain closed for the 5th day today due to snowfall at different places, including Pir-ki-Gali and Dubjan. The road has become slippery due to below normal temperature during the night.