Highway disruptions
Recently Governor’s administration has taken slew of measures for the smooth traffic movement on highway and has also started the efforts for the alternate highway due to the frequent disruptions on Srinagar-Jammu highway by landslides.
Earlier, Srinagar-Jammu highway remained closed for days together even in this month of May due to the frequent closure as the landslides are only being triggered day in and day out. With Governor’s administration looking for the solutions, Advisor to Governor in-charge, recently held a meeting with the committee of experts of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), constituted to assess the situation of land sliding and unstable slopes on National Highway, besides discussing the issues faced by the implementing agency in undertaking hassle-free four-laning of Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
Threadbare discussions over the issues of traffic management, removal and dumping of debris, relocation of towers, parking of trucks, repairing of natural drainages, and awareness of helpline numbers on the national Highway 44 were held. The committee informed the Advisor about the trouble caused by the parking of vehicles, especially trucks, on the road side of the national highway. For better traffic management, it was suggested by the committee that the highway should be divided into zones and section where double lane and single lane traffic is allowed to avoid traffic jams.
The Advisor asked the concerned authorities to ensure that no truck or any other vehicles are parked on the road side and dedicated parking points are identified. Highlighting the issue of debris on the road side, the committee said that there is a proactive need of removing the debris from the highway as it causes hindrance in the smooth working on highway. The Advisor asked the concerned officers to identify more locations to dump the debris which should not cause any inconvenience to the traffic plying on the highway.