India
Snow on 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh highway removed, opens on April 15
Srinagar | Sunday, Mar 30 2008 IST
The 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh National Highway will be put through on April 15, as five feet to 40 feet accumulated snow has been cleared, a senior BEACON official said. We have removed all the snow from the highway, BEACON Chief Engineer A K Botaney told UNI this afternoon. However, he said it will take about two weeks more to make the highway, linking Drass, second coldest place in the world, Kargil and Leh with the rest of the country, safe for traffic. He said there are reports of shooting of stones and threat of snow avalanches in some identified areas. We are taking care of the threat, he said adding the traffic will be allowed only once there is zero per cent danger. He said the trail of the road will be conducted next week. We are undertaking repair work of the road besides, at some places water comes from the top which also pose a threat, he said and appealed people not to undertake journey untill the road is declared safe. Mr Botaney said about 250 workers of the BEACON were working round the clock to reopen the highway, more than a month before schedule this time. The highway remains closed for winter months from November every year due to heavy snowfall at Zojila, Captain Morh and Zero line. We have to remove six feet to 40 feet of snow which had accumulated on the road by pressing into service more than 20 snow cutters and other sophsticated machine from both sides of the Zojila, the Chief Engineer said giving credit to his men for early reopening of the highway. He said, at captain morh and adjacent areas there was more than 40 feet of snow on the road. Mr Botaney said there was however no casualty or damage to machinery during the snow clearance operation this year despite snow avalanches and shooting of stones at some places. He said the 80-km-long Srinagar-Sonmarg was declared open last week after the BEACON and civil authorities put a joint effort. This was for the first time that the road was reopened a month before the scheduled date. A large number of tourists visited the resort of Sonmarg and the local population, including pony walls who had left in November last year, returned back there. -- (UNI) -- 30DR14.xml
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