BRO says it is trying to reopen Sgr-Leh highway
Srinagar: Even as the weather remains challenging in hilly region in Sonamarg, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Tuesday said that it is making all out efforts to clear the snow on Zojila to make the road through for vehicular traffic.
Despite freezing weather conditions and icy surface on the 25-km long stretch of Sonmarg to Gumri on Srinagar-Leh Highway, it is for the first time that BRO is putting its workforce and machinery in a challenging weather to clear the snow on the road to provide extended connectivity to Leh with the rest of the state.
Colonel Awadhesh Singh, Director Works Project Beacon, said, “We are making efforts to open the road for traffic to connect Leh with the rest of the world even though the weather conditions are extremely unfavourable for such a task.”
He said there are 35 active avalanche sites on Sonamarg-Gumri track with the snow accumulation of 4 feet recorded on Zojilla, and many of the avalanche sites are yet to be cleared.
However, our men on taking on the difficult challenge and hopefully we will clear the road, he said.
Notably, this will be for the first time that the Srinagar-Leh road will be thrown open for traffic after the road has been declared as closed officially.
The road link connecting Ladakh region with Kashmir was officially closed from Sunday, 10th of Dec, 2017. The 434-km-long highway connecting Leh region with Kashmir Valley remains closed for at five months till weather conditions in the stat improve considerably to let any type of vehicular movement on the road.
“We have withdrawn all our personnel deployed on the highway between Sonamarg and Drass, on other side of the Zojila pass to regulate traffic,” a traffic police official said.
The highway remains closed between Sonamarg to Meenmarg Drass because of ten to 15 feet of snowfall during winter.
KV Correspondent
