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Srinagar |Jan 08 (PTK): Eight hundred Fifty trucks and Three hundred cars are stranded on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway for the past three days, in the middle of a forested area, due to incessant rains and heavy snowfall.
The highway gets blocked every year due to snow and being the only road link for the Kashmir Valley, there is always a fear of shortage of commodities when the road closes.
In such a case, the truck drivers are left to fend for themselves and now, they are waiting for the Weather God to show mercy. The administration has confirmed that road clearing operations are underway and the backlog of stranded vehicles will be allowed to go through first.
Water is among the scarcest commodities for the stranded truck drivers. One such truck driver is Mukhtar Ahmad Najar, S/o Gh. Mohd Najar, R/o Baramulla who sets off to the nearby populated areas in search of water every morning.
Left stranded on the Jammu-Srinagar highway, the drivers have banded together. The truck is their home, kitchen and bedroom for now, and this will continue till the road reopens.
“We are stranded in a forested area; there is no source of water nearby. We have to travel long distances to fetch water and we spend the entire day gathering information about the highway – when will it open,” says another truck driver Rampal Singh.
”We have allowed only light passenger vehicles to move towards Kashmir valley from Banihal this afternoon following improvement in the weather,” a traffic police official said. (PTK)