STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Srinagar bound passengers, tourists and pilgrims heading towards Patnitop faced nurmerous hardships along the Jammu Srinagar National highway following long traffic jam at several places on Friday.
It took passengers several extra hours to reach their final destinations due to prevailing chaos and confusion along the highway. The traffic police failed to regulate the movement of the vehicles despite deploying adequate manpower on the vulnerable stretches of the highway.
According to traffic police, due to break down of heavy vehicles at different places the smooth movement of the traffic was affected. To ease out the pressure when local authorities decided to divert the traffic via Chenani-Nashri tunnel some of the truckers and oil tanker drivers staged protest demonstrations as they were prevented from moving through the tunnel due to security considerations.
Haphazard parking of heavy vehicles triggered heavy jam along the route which resulted in hardships to many commuters, who got stranded in the middle of the roads for long hours. Large number of Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims who were keen on visiting famous tourist resort of Patnitop were also stranded in the traffic along with Srinagar bound passengers who were waiting for several days for their turn to return home. The traffic was restored after the Traffie Police took control of the situation and regulated the movement of heavy vehicles.
