Jammu-Srinagar national highway will be partially restored tomorrow: Union Minister

Jammu, April 22 (IANS) Union Minister and Lok Sabha member from Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Jitendra Singh, said on Tuesday that the Jammu-Srinagar national highway is likely to be partially restored on Wednesday, and the relief operations for the flash flood-affected families in Ramban district were being carried out.

Dr Jitendra Singh said on X, “The relief operations are in full swing. Administration is doing its best despite the most unfavourable circumstances. DC Mr Baseer Choudhary is personally camping in the affected area. The electricity supply is being restored. Out of 1762 DTs, 1486 DTs have been restored and work on remaining 286 DTs is going on. As for water supply, out of 98, WSS 89 water supply schemes have been made functional and restoration work on remaining 9 schemes is going on."

He said the National Highway is likely to be restored partially by Wednesday. “I plan to be personally at the district headquarter Ramban tomorrow to work out the further measures with administration,” he said.

For the third consecutive day on Tuesday, the Srinagar-Jammu national highway remained closed after the massive landslides. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) engineers said the highway is damaged at 22 locations and the restoration work is going on at full swing.

Landslides triggered by flash floods killed three people on Sunday in the Ramban district, while over 100 were rescued. Nearly 4 to 5 km of the Jammu-Srinagar national highway was completely washed away, and the debris buried many vehicles under it.

Hundreds of passengers are stranded on the highway as authorities stepped in to provide shelter and food to the stranded passengers.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, braving adverse weather, reached Kali Morh on the highway on Monday to personally supervise the relief operation and assess the damage.

He said the damage was huge, but the disaster happened at a local level and as such, it cannot be declared as a ‘national disaster’.

The CM, however, assured that all possible relief and assistance would be provided to the affected families.

Former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah has requested the Centre to step in with relief for the affected families.

Meanwhile, V.K. Bidhuri, divisional commissioner (Kashmir), has again appealed to people in the Valley not to indulge in panic buying as there are sufficient stocks of foodgrains and petroleum products to last for a fortnight. People have been mobbing filling stations across the Valley to buy petrol and diesel much beyond their daily requirement.

--IANS

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