Amid corona threat: Highway closed, thousands stranded

Srinagar, Mar 13: Amid coronavirus threat, thousands of passengers are stranded at different places along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway for the last three days.
The 270-km highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country was closed on Wednesday after landslides and shooting stones hit the arterial road in the Ramban district.
IGP (Traffic), Jammu and Kashmir, T Namgyal said over 500 vehicles including trucks and LMVs are stranded on the highway.
Out of them, 130 are passenger vehicles and the rest are trucks. We are monitoring the situation. The decision to resume traffic on the highway depends on the improvement in the weather and clearance of the road, he said.
Namgyal said there is a threat of landslides and the safety of the passengers is of paramount importance.
On the other side, the passengers are fuming over the slow road clearance operation.
They are already scared by the outbreak of coronavirus. To make the matters worse, the authorities are showing callous attitude towards the road clearance, said Faisal, a 30-year-old businessman who is traveling to Kashmir with his family.
Faisal said the authorities brought a JCB machine at 10 am. 揃ut they started road clearance work only at 12 noon. Now they are telling us it will take one more day he said.
Similarly, Sumaya, a 27-year-old teacher who is traveling with her father, said there are no washrooms on the highway.
In one hand, we are being asked to maintain hygiene and on the other, there is not even public convenience along the highway. Plus there is an inordinate delay in the clearing of the road, she said.