Jammu- Srinagar NH closed; Amarnath Yatra remains suspended

The annual pilgrimage to the holy cave shrine of Shri Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas remained suspended from Jammu City for the third consecutive day on Monday, said officials. The nearly 250 km long Jammu-Srinagar national highway (NH44) suffered extensive damage in Ramban district due to heavy rains in the past two days. The Yatra convoys from Jammu had to pass through Ramban to reach the cave shrine.

“The yatra remains suspended from Jammu due to bad condition of the highway. No fresh batch was allowed to move towards Kashmir from Jammu base camp on Monday morning,” a senior officer said. The highway remains closed due to restoration works in Ramban district.

“1745 hrs, July 10 - Following approach road cave in at Panthyal on July 8, diversion from Tunnel T-3 towards Tunnel T-5 over bridge by NHAI reaches last mile coverage,” the deputy magistrate of Ramban district Mussarat Islam wrote on official twitter handle.

When contacted, Islam said, “NHAI is working full throttle to restore the affected road stretch between T3 and T5 tunnels. It was basically a temporary stretch that was washed away due heavy rains on Saturday.”

Islam also informed that substantial progress has also been achieved by NHAI in laying of interim bypass at Seri, to restore connectivity on NH-44. Another stretch road of the highway had caved in Chenab river due to heavy rains. He informed that around seven JCBs and heavy machineries have been working non-stop to restore the affected stretches.

The DC, who personally visited the affected stretches on Monday and supervised the restoration works, said, “We are well on track and hope to restore the highway at the earliest.”

He said the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is working round-the-clock at Chamba-Seri and is working on an alternate alignment to ensure early restoration of the road. “The restoration work will take some time. The stranded vehicles will be cleared on priority once the road is made motorable,” he said. However, no fresh traffic will be allowed either from Jammu or Srinagar till the clearance of the stranded vehicles, he added. On Kashmir bound Amarnath pilgrims left stranded in Ramban due to closure of the highway, the deputy magistrate said, “Nearly 5,000 pilgrims have been kept in Yatri Niwas at Ramban where administration is providing them boarding and lodging besides arranging indoor games for them. We are also showing them religious movies on a big video screen”. Over, 6,000 pilgrims are stranded in Jammu, particularly at the Yatri Niwas base camp at Bhagwati Nagar in Jammu City. While Yatra remains suspended for the past three days, pilgrims continue to pour into Jammu region via Lakhanpur. A senior police officer informed that to avoid overcrowding in Jammu City, the administration has accommodated some pilgrims at camps in Lakhanpur in Kathua distrdict and Chichi Mata Temple in Samba district. Over 90,000 pilgrims have so far paid obeisance at the cave shrine of Amarnath. In view of closure of the Jammu-Srinagar national highway, the heavy load carriers have been diverted to Mughal Road to reach Kashmir from Jammu and vice-versa. Mughal Road, an alternate link connecting twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu with the south Kashmir’s Shopian district , was through for both-way traffic.