Poonch/Jammu, Mar 22: The Mughal Road, a vital alternative route connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country, reopened for vehicular traffic on Sunday after remaining closed for around 10 days due to heavy snowfall, officials said.
The 84-km road links south Kashmir’s Shopian district with Poonch and Rajouri districts in the Jammu region.
Officer Commanding of GREEF, Ashish Gupta, said that the snow clearance work was completed after an improvement in weather conditions.
“As the weather cleared, we removed snow from the Mughal Road and completed the clearance work this afternoon. After this, vehicles were allowed to move towards Kashmir as well as towards Poonch from Kashmir,” he said, adding that the first vehicle from Shopian had reached Poonch.
Gupta said that both passenger and goods vehicles were allowed to ply.
Local residents welcomed the reopening, saying it would significantly ease travel between the regions.
Liaqat Hussain, a resident of Poonch, thanked the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and the administration for restoring connectivity. “This decision will reduce our travel time to Srinagar to nearly six hours,” he said.
Another resident, Shakeel Ahmed, said that the closure had disrupted essential travel, including medical visits.
“I wanted to take my sibling to Srinagar for a medical examination, but we could not go due to the road closure. Now we will travel to Kashmir to visit the hospital,” he said.
