Heavy rains and landslide closes Jammu-Srinagar national highway; one dead

Vehicles wade through a water logged road after the city received heavy rainfall, in Srinagar on Sunday. (Source: PTI)

One person was killed and two others were injured, while nearly 5,000 vehicles including passenger and goods carriers were stranded along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Monday. Heavy rainfall has triggered landslides in the state and as a result the national highway has been closed. The heavy rains have also led to steep rise in the water levels of rivers and nullahs across Jammu.

Giving details, sources said that the victims were carrying bouvine animals in a TATA mobile from Pancheri to Udhampur. However, while crossing a nullah enroute the vehicle got washed away. While two people were rescued and rushed to the hospital, another along with the bouvine animals was washed away.

While the administration has alerted people living in low lying areas near nullahs and rivers, the Army and Police have rescued 40 people including women and children who were marooned in flood waters at different places in the Poonch district in last 24 hours. Of them, ten were rescued from Betar nullah in Poonch, 15 at Potha in Surankote and five in Kalai.

Highlighting that the national highway was closed due to the landslides earlier too and it was reopened for vehicular traffic only four days ago, sources said that Sunday rains have caused heavy damage to it at various places. While an entire hillock has come down near Kheri, the road was damaged at various places between Batote to Ramban and Banihal. Nearly 15 meters of road had disappeared due to the landslides at Digdole.

Source:: Indian Express