Jammu-Srinagar highway opened for one-way traffic

Thousands of stranded vehicles including hundreds of trucks with supplies of essentials will reach the Valley on Friday evening as the Jammu-Srinagar highway was re-opened for one-way traffic after 13 days of blockade late on Friday afternoon.

"We have opened the Jammu-Srinagar road for one-way traffic on Friday afternoon and all the stranded Srinagar-bound vehicles, including hundreds of trucks carrying supplies of essentials like fresh vegetables, mutton, poultry poducts and milk, besides petroleum products would reach here today," a government official said in Srinagar.

The closing of the highway resulted in acute shortages of vegetables, mutton, poultry, milk and liquefied petroleum gas in Srinagar.

The Beacons engineers, who are responsible for maintaining the 300-km long road that passes through some of the most treacherous terrain, were working round the clock to clear the blockade at Panthal near Ramban where rains and slush had been bringing down landslides.