NH-44 landslides in 2025 left 2,200 apple trucks marooned: Govt
Srinagar, Feb 11: Nearly 22,000 metric tonnes (MT) of apples — roughly 2,200 truckloads — were stranded for almost two weeks on National Highway-44 (NH-44) during the last harvest season, disrupting Kashmir’s high-value horticulture economy at a critical dispatch window, the government informed the House.
Replying to Supplementary Question No. 1070 by MLA Irfan Hafiz Lone, the government acknowledged that climate-linked disruptions, including heavy rainfall and landslides on August 26–27 and September 2–3, 2025, severely damaged the Ramban–Banihal stretch of NH-44 — the Valley’s primary trade artery to national markets.
The timing proved costly. The blockade coincided with the peak harvest of Red Delicious and Royal Delicious varieties, which together account for over 85 per cent of Kashmir’s apple production. These varieties also have a relatively short shelf life of five to six weeks without controlled atmosphere (CA) storage, making uninterrupted transport crucial.
Kashmir’s total apple production for 2025–26 is estimated at 22.15 lakh MT, of which nearly 14 lakh MT is shipped outside the Union Territory. While official figures suggest that only around one per cent of the total seasonal output was physically stranded at a time, the disruption hit during the most commercially sensitive phase. Growers reported price crashes, storage bottlenecks and quality deterioration.
The government said that 15,000 truckloads were cleared after partial restoration of the highway on September 17. Between September 1 and 16, about 783 trucks were diverted via the Mughal Road, with a cumulative 13,800 trucks using the alternate route during the blockade. Additionally, over 1.25 lakh apple boxes worth approximately Rs 10 crore were transported by rail from Budgam and Anantnag to Jammu and Delhi.
To manage the crisis, the Horticulture Department established a control room at Qazigund to coordinate truck movement, advised staggered harvesting and promoted short-term CA storage. Six-tyre trucks were also permitted on the Mughal Road to ease congestion.
The episode has once again underscored the vulnerability of Kashmir’s apple economy — heavily dependent on a single highway — and the high stakes tied to timely market access during peak harvest.
