As the national highway, the only road linking Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh with Kashmir remained closed since January 1st, the administration has arranged C130 Hercules Aircraft to airlift passengers between Leh and Jammu and Srinagar on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, 243 passengers were airlifted between Leh, Jammu, Srinagar and Kargil on Tuesday, when a return flight of AN 32 from Srinagar to Kargil was cancelled due to weather conditions.
Traffic on 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh national highway remained closed since January 1, 2021 due to accumulation of snow and avalanches particularly at Zojila.
However, the Beacon officers declared the strategically highway open on February 28 only to get closed after few hours due to fresh snowfall and avalanches.
Normally each year the highway was being declared open before April 15. But this year road was opened about two months earlier only to be declared closed again.
Meanwhile, large number of trucks, loaded with essentials for Ladakh remained stranded on this side of the Zojila pass. The truckers alleged that they have now no money to buy eatables for survival besides there is no word from administration when the traffic will be allowed on the highway.
However, several thousand passengers were airlifted between Leh and Kargil to Jammu, Srinagar and Chandigarh during this winter.
