No end to traffic jams on Sgr-Jmu highway

Srinagar, Feb 25: The 270-kilometer-long Srinagar-Jammu highway witnessed heavy traffic jams along multiple places along the road on Saturday.
The traffic department failed to streamline traffic at different points along the important road, according to commuters and drivers.
While the traffic department reported that 242 challans were registered for overtaking, overloading, and speeding.
Fayaz Ahmad Dar, a Cab driver told Rising Kashmir that traffic police cops were not deployed at sensitive bottleneck places due to which heavy traffic jam was witnessed on the highway.
“The gridlocks caused a huge inconvenience to the commuters as they were stuck for hours. The normal journey of 7-8 hours took 14-15 hours on the highway. It was complete mismanagement,” he said.
Another local Junaid Ahmad, a commuter at Ramban said it took him 12 hours to reach Ramban from Jammu. The issue should be resolved permanently rather than leaving the public struck for hours in unwanted jams, he said.
“From past several weeks, there seems to be no letup in the traffic jam on the highway. It has been decades now and the government has failed to construct a good highway,” Junaid said.
Commuters alleged that traffic regulation on the Srinagar-Jammu highway is going from bad to worse and the situation has not changed on the ground.
SSP Ramban& SSP Traffic NHW, Mohita Sharma said intermittent shooting stones both at Mehar and Shalgadi hampering traffic movement on NH. Vehicles were allowed on one to one basis. There was high pressure, she said.
Sharma said 242 challans were registered by the traffic police department for overtaking, overloading and over speeding the Srinagar-Jammu highway on Saturday.
“Suspension and cancellation of DLs also recommended Transporting department,” she said.
A traffic police department spokesman from 7 AM to 5 PM on Saturday, Jammu Srinagar NHW remained blocked for one hour at Cafeteria due to shooting stones and C-N Tunnel was closed for 01 hour by Tunnel authority, making the total blockage of two hours 04 minutes.
“There was a slow movement on NH-44 due to the breakdown of 03 HMVs between Nashri and NAVYUG Tunnel,” he said.
The spokesman said on Sunday, subject to fair weather and road clearance, LMVs passengers, Private Cars shall be allowed from both sides on the highway. TCU Jammu, Srinagar shall liaise with TCU Ramban before releasing the traffic.
He said NHAI has been directed by the Govt. to repair and maintainence works on NH-44 between Nashri and NAVYUG Tunnel. In view of that traffic will remain suspended from Nashri towards NAVYUG Tunnel and vice versa from 0600 hrs on 3rd March to 0600 hrs on 4th March 2023.
Earlier Jammu DIG (Traffic) Shridhar Patil during a visit to the strategic 270-km Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was briefed about the condition of the road that has seen frequent closures over the past few weeks due to landslides and shooting stones.
The highway is the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country.