123 passengers stranded in J&K, Ladakh airlifted by IAF
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: A massive landslide blocked the strategic 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway in Udhampur district early Monday, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded, officials said.
The landslide struck the highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, at Dewal near Samroli around 2.45 am, the officials said.
Senior Superintendent of Police, traffic (national highway), Shabir Ahmad Malik said road clearance agencies have pressed men and machinery and efforts are on to make the highway traffic worthy.
“No fresh traffic was allowed either from Jammu or Srinagar this morning in view of the closure of the highway, ” he said, adding over 300 Jammu-bound trucks and some passenger vehicles were left stranded due to the closure of the highway.
The blocking of the highway also forced suspension of traffic on the Jammu-Kishtwar-Doda national highway which passes through Samroli as well, the officials said.
Hundreds of passenger vehicles, which left for Srinagar and Chenab valley region including Doda and Kishtwar this morning, were stopped at several places including Nagrota bypass and Narwal here.
The highway was only cleared for traffic on Sunday after a day-long closure owing to fresh snowfall in Qazigund-Banihal sector and multiple landslides triggered by heavy rains in Ramban.
The SSP said barring 300 trucks on their way to Jammu, thousands of vehicles had reached their destinations on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force airlifted a total of 123 passengers stranded at various places in Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh owing to the closure of 434-km Srinagar-Leh National Highway owing to heavy snowfall, an official said.
An AN-32 IAF aircraft, also known as Kargil Courier, transported 44 stranded people from Jammu to Kargil and 15 from Kargil to Jammu, chief coordinator Aamir Ali of the IAF’s Courier Service said.
Similarly, 38 passengers stranded in Srinagar were flown to Kargil and 26 from Kargil to Srinagar, Ali said.
The IAF operates C-17, C-130 and AN-32 aircraft regularly to airlift stranded passengers between J&K and Ladakh during the closure of the Srinagar-Leh National Highway owing to snowfall.