Can roads open for now

Kashmir has not received any major snowfall this winter so far, but some of the roads witnessed either frequent closure or have been closed till further orders after receiving snowfall. Although the light snowfall was experienced two weeks back, the vital Gurez-Bandipora road in northern Kashmir is continuously closed for vehicular movement from the past more than a month, thus leaving the local populace to lurch at large. Kashmir’s major roads including Srinagar-Jammu national highway, Srinagar-Leh highway, Mughal Road and Gurez-Bandipora road witnesses’ frequent closure whenever it rains or snow during the bad weather advisory, therefore leaving the people to suffer. However, one fails to understand how long the people here are supposed to face such inconvenience even as the government claims to have started development works to ensure the dawn of development in the region. But when it comes to the basic facilities like roads, the situation is turning bad to worse with each passing day as there has been no end to the sufferings of people due to the frequent closure of the roads as the major highways and roads have hardly witnessed a change on the ground. In the present times, the Gurez-Bandipora road continues to remain closed for the traffic, which is leaving the people to lurch at large, therefore, the government should consider reopening the road at an earliest so that the people could heave a sigh of relief.