The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway reopened to traffic on Thursday evening after Border Roads Organisation crews cleared a landslide near Ramban that had blocked both carriageways since Sunday, officials said. Convoys of stranded trucks, many carrying perishable produce, began moving in batches under police escort.
District authorities said the closure had left more than 4,000 vehicles queued at holding points along the route, with local administrations setting up temporary food and medical camps for stranded passengers. The BRO deployed additional excavators after a second, smaller slip on Tuesday briefly halted clearance work.
Officials said slope-stabilisation work would continue through the coming weeks, with traffic restricted to daylight hours until a retaining wall section is completed. The highway is the primary road link between the Kashmir valley and the rest of the country during winter closures of the Mughal Road.
We lost two days of produce standing still in that queue. Nobody tells you which day the road actually opens.
The Border Roads Organisation said it had pre-positioned additional excavators at three points along the corridor ahead of this year's monsoon, cutting the average clearance time compared with last year's closures. District officials said they were reviewing whether to make the food and medical camps a standing monsoon-season fixture rather than an ad hoc response.
