Srinagar, April 7 (IANS) After it was restored for traffic after a day’s blockade on Tuesday morning, a massive landslide in Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) Ramban district again blocked the strategic Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.

Traffic department officials said a massive landslide struck the highway stretch between Digdol and Khooni Nallah along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway (NH-44) on Tuesday afternoon, leading to a complete blockage of the road and suspension of vehicular movement, officials said.

The debris and boulders rolled down onto the highway, rendering the route impassable.

“Traffic authorities have immediately halted movement on the busy highway as a precautionary measure to ensure public safety”, traffic department officials said.

Commuters have been advised to avoid travel on NH-44 until clearance operations are completed and the road is declared safe for vehicular movement.

Restoration work is expected to commence shortly, subject to weather conditions.

The nearly 300-km-long highway is the lifeline of supplies for the landlocked Valley as most essentials of life are still brought into the Valley through this highway.

LPG, petrol, diesel, kerosene, mutton, poultry products and vegetables are still brought into the Valley through tankers and trucks despite the fully operational rail link between Jammu and the Valley.

Unless cargo trains start bringing in essentials of life and carry fruit and other farm produce during the peak season to the national markets, the dependence of the Valley on the highway will continue.

With massive renovation and restoration carried out by laying new bridges, flyovers and tunnels, the travel time between Srinagar and Jammu has been brought down to 5 hours from the previous 10 to 12 hours.

Despite this, the highway remains a highly weather dependent road because of the dicey stretch from Ramsoo to Ramban town.

Shooting stones and landslides triggered by rain often block the highway on this stretch of the road and restoration work sometimes takes days together.

–IANS

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