A portion of the protection wall along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway collapsed in the Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir, causing disruptions in vehicular movement, officials said on Friday.
Approximately 40 metres of the wall along the adjoining Sawni Panchayat link road caved in on Thursday night, they added.
Shubham Yadav, Project Director of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), said a 40-metre section of the back wall had been damaged.
“One of the tubes of the four-lane highway has been shut. The cause of the collapse and erosion is yet to be ascertained,” he said. He said restoration work has been launched to make the affected tube trafficable at the earliest.
Traffic is currently being regulated through the single operational tube, leading to slow movement along the stretch. The collapse also damaged a part of the Sawni Panchayat link road, affecting connectivity, they added.
Meanwhile, officials from the NHAI, district administration, and traffic department are on the spot monitoring the situation to prevent further damage and ensure smooth flow of traffic on the strategic highway linking Kashmir with the rest of the country.
The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway has suffered frequent delays this year, particularly during recent persistent rainfall, which triggered floods and landslides across several districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
The closure of the highway caused massive losses to fruit growers in the Kashmir Valley, before the railways stepped in to ferry their produce across the country.
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