SRINAGAR: The 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway, the Valley’s only all-weather road link, has turned into a nightmare for commuters and truckers after being battered by record rainfall late last month. Journeys that would normally take around five hours are now stretching well beyond 12, with damaged stretches, poor traffic management, and unchecked movement of heavy vehicles adding to the chaos.
The highway’s most fragile section, between Nashri and Udhampur, suffered extensive damage on August 26 and 27. Entire portions were washed away in Samroli, while a massive landslide near Peerah blocked one tube of a tunnel. Between Balli Nalla and Thared, both sides of the road were buried under a moving hill, forcing the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to create a diversion. Officials supervising repairs said the surface remained unstable and required constant attention, warning that full restoration would take months.
Despite restrictions on truck movement, heavy vehicles, including hundreds carrying freshly harvested apples, have continued to ply. Data from toll plazas indicated that about 2,500 trucks passed through the highway between Friday evening and Saturday morning. Their presence has created bottlenecks stretching across kilometres, leaving passenger vehicles crawling at a snail’s pace and in some stretches moving dangerously on the wrong side due to clogged tubes.
For apple growers, the situation has become particularly worrying. The peak harvest season is underway, and every delay in transportation is increasing the risk of losses in terminal markets. Drivers of fruit-laden trucks said they had been stranded for long hours without clarity on how soon they would be able to move.
Commuters reported that the jams began as early as Qazigund, where a blocked tube left the parallel lane congested. The Banihal-Ramban sector proved equally challenging, as the absence of signboards or traffic police forced many to navigate diversions on their own. The most severe delays were seen after Peerah, where it took vehicles nearly eight hours to cover just three kilometres near Nashri because of frequent closures for repair work. In Udhampur, trucks blocked not only one tube but also lanes in the other, creating chaos. Witnesses described ambulances stuck in the mess for hours, with traffic regulations completely missing.
Authorities maintained that one-way traffic for light motor vehicles had been allowed on a trial basis, but the wet surface at Thared made heavy motor vehicle movement unsafe. On the ground, however, truck movement appeared unrestricted, worsening the situation for smaller vehicles.
With major stretches unstable and diversions temporary, the highway remains highly vulnerable. For travellers, the road has become an exhausting gauntlet, while for Kashmir’s apple growers, the prolonged delays are threatening both incomes and produce.
