Srinagar, Aug 30: The reopening of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway for stranded vehicles after a four-day gap has brought relief for the fruit growers of Kashmir, who were staring at huge losses given the low shelf-life of their produce.
They are now hoping for a quick resumption of normal traffic on the 250-km road, the lifeline of their livelihood. The all-weather road links Kashmir with the rest of the country.
The Jammu-Srinagar national highway was reopened only for stranded vehicles on Saturday after being closed for four days owing to multiple landslides and caving-in of a 60-metre stretch in Udhampur district following record rainfall earlier this week.
According to officials, more than 2,000 vehicles had been stranded at multiple places on either end of the highway after the August 26 rainfall, which flooded low-lying areas and left a trail of death and destruction in the Jammu region.
After taking some time to allow the boulder base to settle down, the stranded vehicles, especially those carrying perishable items, including fruit-laden trucks, oil tankers and light motor vehicles were allowed to move on from both ends in a regulated manner.
National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) Project Director, Ramban, Shubam said efforts are on to ensure early reopening of the highway for normal traffic.
“We had almost completed the restoration work at 6 pm on Friday and were hopeful of allowing traffic on the strategic highway this (Saturday) morning. But fresh overnight rains hampered our efforts,” he told PTI.
The news has been a reason to cheer for the fruit growers of Kashmir.
Fruit-laden trucks from Kashmir had been stranded for days due to the closure of the critical highway following heavy rains and flash floods, with growers expressing apprehensions of losses.
Chairman of the Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers-cum-Dealers Union, Bashir Ahmad Basheer, said 700 to 800 fruit trucks were stranded on the highway with each carrying items worth Rs 5-9 lakh.
These were loaded with fruits like Bagogosha pears, Galamast apples, and Red Ghala apples, which perish within days if the temperature is not regulated, he told PTI.
The prices were already down, and the closure of the highway had added to our worries, Basheer said.
“The harvest season for early fruit varieties is on, and the trucks with perishable produce were waiting for transportation. It could have been a disaster for us with losses running into crores had the trucks not moved,” he added.
Explaining why the reopening of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was so critical for them, Basheer said that while the authorities had allowed fruit movement on the Mughal Road, that route can be travelled by six-tyre trucks, which carry less load.
“Most of the fruit, almost 90 per cent, is transported in heavy trucks having 10-16 tyres. We want the government to allow at least 10-tyre trucks on the Mughal Road round-the-clock,” he said.
Basheer said 10-tyre trucks transport fruit to Delhi and not beyond. “To transport our produce beyond Delhi, the movement of the heavy trucks is essential,” he explained.
Abrar Ahmad, a fruit grower in the Ganderbal district of central Kashmir, said transportation on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway has always been a problem, and expressed hope that once the Railway Cargo Service starts in the last week of September, moving their produce to the market would become hassle-free.
The Northern Railways will start a daily Joint Parcel Product- Railway Cargo Service (JPP-RCS) between Budgam and New Delhi from September to ensure faster and direct transportation of the Valley’s fruit produce to the nation’s markets.
The service was approved by the Railway Board this month, and the first train is expected to leave from Kashmir for Delhi in the last week of September.
“The service will cut dependence on the highway, which often faces problems due to weather and traffic congestion. With that, large volumes of fruit can be taken to Delhi markets directly, and that too in time. It will be a faster and more reliable way of transport,” the fruit grower added.
