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Jammu-Srinagar National Highway opened today

by IBNS 16 Sep 2014, 12:35 pm

Udhampur, Sep 16 (IBNS): After sustained effort by the Border Road Organisation (BRO) and army engineers, the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway (NH) was opened on Tuesday, Ministry of Defence (MoD) official said.

Multiple landslides were cleared with simultaneous deployment of engineers and specialist equipment coordinated by the chief engineer of head quarter (HQ)-northern command based at Udhampur to restore the vital stretch.

Earlier, the military engineers had restored the land link to the beleaguered Kashmir Valley from the Ladakh side and cleared the Sinthan Pass route via Kishtwar.

The major impediment to opening the NH was a massive landslide at Ramsoo near Ramban where over 300 metres of road had been entirely washed away leaving a sheer cliff of 80 degrees slope. The entire hillside had to be excavated afresh and the effort had to be further intensified due to a repeated landslide last week, a MoD press communiqué said.

Work is now on to construct a new bridge over the Ans River near Budhal which will likely to be completed in two days. Several army bridges have already been constructed and over 40 landslides cleared expeditiously by the military engineers, in an effort to improve traffic mobility on all road links across the flood-hit state.