HUNDREDS OF STRANDED PEOPLE AIRLIFTED IN JAMMU, LEH

As the Srinagar-Leh highway is closed for vehicular traffic due to the slippery conditions at and around Zojila pass, the administration had requested the government to airlift stranded people in Leh and Jammu.

Reports said that at the request of Lt Governor of UT of Ladakh, the administration arranged C130 Hercules Aircrafts to airlift passengers between Leh and Jammu and Srinagar on Wednesday. The highway between Srinagar and Leh was open earlier but was again closed on 1 January and since then it has not been opened for traffic.

Authorities told reporters on Wednesday that they airlifted 243 passengers between Leh, Jammu, Srinagar, and Kargil on Tuesday when a return flight of AN 32 from Srinagar to Kargil was cancelled due to bad weather.

Though the Beacon authorities who are responsible to keep this national highway open, after a lot of efforts opened it on 28 February but only after a few hours it was closed again due to avalanches and fresh snowfall.

Beacon officers, during the current year, tried to declare the Srinagar-Leh highway open two days earlier owing to their efforts to clear the snow as in the past it was always open for traffic on 15 April.

Meanwhile, hundreds of drivers, who are stranded along with trucks on this side of the Zojila as well as on the other side, have protested against the delay to reopen the road. There are dozens of trucks loaded with essential commodities waiting for the signal to cross the Zojila pass to reach Kargil and Leh. These truckers have alleged that the traffic authorities could allow them to cross but were delaying it resulting in a lot of losses and also made their purses empty.