Srinagar, Sept 26: Traffic Police on Monday said 45,923 trucks including 17,631 apple trucks were moved from Srinagar to Jammu national highway from September 1st, officials said.
Giving details about the movement of trucks on the highway, a press release from IGP Traffic’s office said, “On September 24th, 825 trucks (including 671 apple trucks) were released as shooting stones started at Mehar and the traffic had to be suspended.
“Yesterday, on September 25th, 4554 trucks (including 3995 apple trucks) were released, out of which 1500 trucks got stranded at Mehar due to shooting stones,” said the official.
The IGP Traffic further added that today trucks were again released from Srinagar to Jammu and the backlog of all the approximately 2500 trucks at Qazigund will get cleared today itself.
“Apple trucks are given priority for the release at Qazigund. Therefore, there is no case of apple trucks remaining stranded at Qazigund for more than two days contrary to the false claims and propaganda that is being spread by vested interests,” said the officials.
They warned that Police will initiate strict action against individuals who are spreading false and unverified information regarding the movement of apple trucks.
“Extra time was given to down convoy for smooth clearance of apple trucks on the highway. In case of blockage of NH 44 due to shooting stones, down HMVs were released on consecutive days to ensure speedy clearance of apple trucks.
Extra traffic personnel were deputed to Qazigund and Banihal- Ramban stretches to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic,” said the IGP Traffic.
The directions were given to ensure that no vehicle was allowed for up traffic.
He informed that the Traffic Police has taken a number of additional steps to increase the flow of apple trucks even before the start of the apple season.
The IGP Traffic convened a series of meetings with Directors of Horticulture and Agriculture, Kashmir and other stakeholders including Horticulture Associations of J&K Union Territory in this regard.
In order to ensure full transparency, IGP Traffic asked the Horticulture Department and Horticulture associations to depute their representative with Traffic officials of Banihal and Qazigund for ensuring smooth movement of fruit trucks.
As per the officials, the Department of Horticulture was asked to paste stickers on the windscreen of each fruit-laden truck mentioning, “apple- or fresh produce as appropriate with an accompanying picture for ease of identification.”
One Whatsapp group was created at the Traffic headquarters level in which all stakeholders were added for timely redressal of the grievance of fruit growers, said the officials.
“As HMVS play on NH-44 on alternate days it was suggested to the representatives of various trade associations to follow the timetable for the release of trucks on the National Highway and dispatch their vehicle outside Kashmir, so that fruit trucks loaded with fruit would not get stuck at Qazigund,” the officials said.
He added, “Traffic Department also undertook a number of steps to facilitate the flow of traffic through the Mughal Road to ease the pressure on the NH 44.”
