Jahangeer Ganaie
Shopian, Apr 15: Despite the snow clearance, the historic Mughal road is still closed for traffic movement.
Officials within the mechanical department said that the snow clearance work which was started in the month of March has been completed and traffic could be restored on the road.
People from Shopian as well as Poonch and Rajouri have been demanding to reopen of the road for traffic as they are forced to reach Jammu first from where they can to Kashmir or Rajouri or Poonch.
They said that the closure of the road has badly hit the business and other activities of the residents of Shopian, Hirpora, Dubjan, Pir-Ki-Gali and Buffliaz, Thanamadi and other villages.
Pertinently, despite getting the national highway status in the year 2016, the Mughal road has no mechanical division of its own besides a tunnel was proposed to make it a full-time road as it is seen as an alternative to the National Highway.
The 84-kilometre stretch that connects Shopian in the Kashmir division with Poonch and Rajouri in the Jammu division remains closed for about four to six months due to the heavy snowfall. About 10 to 20 km are prone to high danger avalanches.
The distance between Shopian town and Poonch town has reduced to 126 from 588 Kms due to Mughal road.
Meanwhile, businessmen and locals have requested the government authorities to either construct a tunnel on it or create a full-fledged separate mechanical division with modern machinery and technical staff for the Mughal road.
Official sources said that few vehicles are running on the road but officially it hasn’t been reopened yet.
They said that any decision regarding it will be taken by a higher ups District Magistrate Shopian Sachin Kumar Vaishya said that any decision regarding the reopening of Mughal road will be taken by UT administration.
“As of now no decision has been taken,” he said.
