By IANS
Srinagar : The strategic Jammu-Srinagar national highway remained closed Wednesday after heavy snowfall near the Jawahar Tunnel stranded hundreds of vehicles.
“The highway was closed yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon because of snowfall, following which the road conditions became very slippery,” a traffic police official told IANS here.
Hundreds of vehicles carrying supplies of essential commodities to the Kashmir Valley are stranded near the tunnel area on the 300-km-long highway.
Officials said it snowed heavily in the area since Wednesday morning. Efforts by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to open the road for vehicular traffic had to be suspended because of the snowfall.
“No vehicular movement will be allowed from either side of the tunnel” Wednesday, the official said.
The Jammu-Srinagar highway forms the only road link of the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country. All essential supplies including cooking gas, kerosene, petrol, diesel, mutton, poultry, vegetables and ration pass through this link.
Blockades of the highway come handy for unscrupulous traders in the Kashmir Valley to create artificial scarcity of essential commodities to make profits.