Kashmir-Ladakh National Highway to Reopen Next Month

The 434-km-long Srinagar-Kargil-Leh National Highway, which remains closed during the winter months, will be thrown open for vehicular traffic next month.

The lifeline of Ladakh – National Highway 1D – which connects the region with the rest of the world, will open to vehicular traffic in April in record time, said the Commanding Officer of Border Roads Task Force (BRTF), Col Harish Kumar.

He said this while interacting with a team of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) at
Shaitan Nallah, Zojjila.

The highway has remained closed for traffic after heavy snowfall and avalanches at Zojjila for the past five months. As many as eight snow-clearance machines are working currently to clear the road.

Col Harish said the clearance work from Drass to Shaitan Nullah had already been completed in record time of 14 days.

Acting chief executive councillor of the LAHDC, Kargil, Haji Ghulam Amir Kamran, executive councilor for tourism and Zanskar Affairs engineer Punchok Tashi, Kargil Deputy Commissioner Fida Hussain, Chief Medical Officer Dr Shabir Hussain, Deputy Superintendent of Police Aslam and other district officers were also present on the occasion.

Acting chief executive councillor appreciated the role played by the BRTF and the chief engineer, Project Beacon, Brig TPS Rawat, in clearing the snow at Zojjila in a record time.

The Srinagar-Kargil-Leh National Highway remains shut during the winter months due to heavy snowfall in the area.

The 90-km-long Srinagar-Sonamarg road on the strategic highway to Ladakh was thrown open for traffic on Saturday last. Brig Rawat had said the road to Sonamarg was opened about three weeks before schedule as compared to last year.

The Beacon maintains the 100-km-long Srinagar-Zojila stretch of the Srinagar-Leh highway while Himank project maintains the remaining stretch in Ladakh region.

On the re-opening of Zojila pass on the highway to Leh, Brig Rawat said snow clearance was in progress and the road across the highest peak of Zojila would be opened by the mid of April. Last year, the highway had reopened on April 25.He said only 5 km stretch of the road was yet to be cleared of snow and on its completion it would meet the other end being maintained by Himank Project at Gumri.


(TNS)