Srinagar: Over 5,000 vehicles, including those carrying essentials and oil tankers, remained stranded at different places on the 270-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway on Thursday which has been closed for traffic movement after the retaining wall of a bridge in Ramban collapsed on Sunday evening.Barring the Kela Morh, where the main bridge on the highway has been damaged, the road is open for traffic. Meanwhile, stranded passengers are now crossing a nalluh near the damaged bridge to reach the other side and board vehicles for their destination.The historic 86-km-long Mughal road and Anantnag-Kishtwar roads have remained shut since last week of December, 2020 due to accumulation of snow while the national highway, the only road linking the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh with Kashmir has been closed for the winter months.A traffic police official said that the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the only all weather road connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, remained closed for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday due to sudden damage to the bridge at Kela Morh in Ramban on Sunday evening. The highway will remain closed for the next few days, he said.The National High Authority of India (NHAI) had informed the state authorities that repairing by concrete filling and settling of concrete to make it usable by vehicles may take over a week. However, the NHAI said in the interim period, to restore connectivity a bailey bridge is being set up by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO).The BRO has stored all necessary equipment for the bailey bridge. Meanwhile, the NHAI have also started work on the construction of a permanent bridge.Traffic official said Jammu and Kashmir bound vehicles remained stranded on both sides of the damaged bridge at Kela Morh as there is no alternative to divert the traffic.However, he said that vehicles can ply between Jammu-Doda-Kishtwar, Jammu-Ramban, Magarkote-Banihal and Banihal- Qazigund stretches on the highway.Several thousand empty trucks, oil and gas tankers are stranded on this side of the Jawahar tunnel.A family travelling in their car said they had to return back to Banihal after the bridge was damaged. They further said that on Monday they travelled from Banihal to Kela Morh bridge and later crossed a nullah on foot to reach other side, where vehicles were available for Ramban. Similarly other passengers from both sides also crossed the nullah on foot to reach other side before boarding vehicles for their destination.The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) on Thursday said that the construction of Bailey Bridge at Kela Morh in Ramban on Jammu-Srinagar highway is going apace, saying that it has completed 40 percent of the 120 feet long bridge in the last two days.Officials of BRO said that men and machinery are working day and night despite the cold winter.Brigadier K Jaggi, Chief Engineer project Beacon of BRO, who is monitoring the construction of the bridge at the site said that in two days BRO has completed 40 percent of the bridge.”We have put all the resources available for completing the bridge. Work is going on war footing as all men and machinery have been put to use. We are sure that by Friday evening the Bailey Bridge will be completed and ready for traffic,” Brigadier Jaggi said.The Jammu-Srinagar highway is closed for more than a week as the bridge at Kela Morh was blocked after one of its passways was damaged due to landslide. Following the damage, BRO started immediate restoration operation of the bridge by construction Bailey Bridge to immediately restore the traffic on the national highway.Meanwhile, District Development Commissioner (DDC), Ramban, Nazim Zai Khan inspected the progress on the construction of Bailey Bridge besides repairing work of damaged concrete bridge, here at Kela Morh.He informed that traffic would start on the National Highway within 2-3 days through Bailey bridge on which the work is in progress on war footing.The DDC was accompanied by the ADC, Harbans Lal; Project Director, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), Parshotam Kumar and Officers from BRO.The damage to the bridge at Kela Morh has blocked the national highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country. After that administration has started immediate restoration operation.He informed that Border Road Organization (BRO) has started the work to erect a Bailey Bridge at the location to immediately restore the traffic on the national highway. He said that the National Highway Authority of India is already working day and night to repair the damaged bridge which will take a few days because of the huge volume of work.He directed the executing agencies to speed up the construction work at both sites to restore the road for hassle free supply of essentials to Kashmir and traffic movement for the conveniences of commuters.He also advised the people to avoid unnecessary travelling and take up the journey only after confirming the status of the road from the traffic police control room
