Sgr-Jmu NH remains closed for undertaking repair works

Ramban, Feb 6: The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway remained closed for every type of traffic movement for repair and road widening works at Kishtwar Pather-Sherbibi between Nashri and Banihal in Ramban district on Tuesday.

Officials said that the highway suffered extensive damages due to recent rain and snow at Dalwass and Kishtwar Pather-Sherbibi, which created bottlenecks at both places, hindering the smooth flow of traffic.

To clear bottlenecks, the contractor companies of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) pressed their men and machinery at both places to convert single-way road stretches into two lanes at Dalwass and Kishtwar Pather-Sherbibi.

At Kishtwar Pather-Sherbibi, where a portion of the road had caved in following rains last week, around half a dozen heavy machines were pressed into service for excavating hillock for road widening work.

An engineer of NHAI, monitoring road widening work at Kishtwar Pather, said that road restoration work was in progress. He said that efforts were on to make the road stretch double-lane.

“At Dalwass, Mehar-Cafeteria area of Ramban, mud and slush were removed from the road and repair work was almost completed, except for the Kishtwar Pather-Sherbibi stretch. The traffic will remain suspended till Wednesday at 8 am or till the restoration work is completed at Sherbibi,” he said.

Earlier Project Director, NHAI, Project Implementation Unit, (PIU), Ramban had approached District Magistrate Ramban requesting a 24-hour traffic haltage for carrying out urgent repair works at the Dalwass area of Nashri and Kishtwar Pather-Sherbibi area of Banihal on Monday.

Based on the recommendation of the Project Director, NHAI, PIU Ramban, a 24-hour traffic halt from Tuesday (8 am) up to 8 am on Wednesday was ordered by the District Magistrate to facilitate the NHAI and its contractor companies to carry out road widening at Kishtwar Pathar and Dalwass and road repair works at other places in a hassle-free manner.

For this purpose, all the Jammu-bound traffic was stopped at Qazigund in Kashmir and at Jakhani in Udhampur on Monday at 9 pm.

However, the movement of traffic in Jammu, Batote, Doda, and Kishtwar remained unaffected.

Traffic authorities said that all the road traffic between Udhampur and Banihal was cleared on Monday night and the highway was closed for every type of traffic on Tuesday at 8 am.

They said traffic would remain suspended till Wednesday at 8 am or till the restoration work was completed at Dalwass and Sherbibi.

Meanwhile commuters, especially locals of Batote, Ramsu, and Banihal faced problems due to the suspension of traffic on the highway.

There is no alternate or service route except the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway to connect the district headquarters town Ramban with Sub Division Banihal and Ramsu and tehsil Batote.

Traffic authorities late Tuesday evening said that traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway would be resumed on Wednesday morning after the completion of road widening work at Kishtwar Pather by NHAI.