Ramban: The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway has a number of fragile and landslide-prone locations, and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has finally begun rock stabilisation work there.
This work has started on the segments between Nashri and Banihal where earth excavation work for road expansion work to convert two-lane roads into four-lanes was just finished.
The engineers of the contractor businesses hired to do the rock stabilisation, rock bolting, and net laying activities are optimistic that after this work (rock stabilisation) is finished, concerns about rock slides and stone-shooting from hillocks next to the highway will be eliminated.
Engineers predicted that the reduction of the dangers of rock sliding and firing stones at several susceptible places would have a favourable effect on the safety of vehicle operators and tourists.
They said that it will contribute to better road connections between the rest of the nation and the Kashmir valley.
The Srinagar Jammu National route is often closed due to incidents of rock falls and stones being thrown down hillsides, and between the Nashri and Banihal sections of the route, valuable lives of motorists and vehicle operators are also lost.
The most recent event occurred on September 11, 2023, when a truck headed towards a valley was struck by large stones and forced into the Bisleri Nullah in the Silhad-Sherbibi district of Banihal on NH-44, resulting in four fatalities.
Before that, on June 13, 2023, a moving automobile with the registration number PB99-9993 was struck by a rolling stone on the Mehar-Cafeteria section, killing 12-year-old Arsha Devi, a native of Amritsar, Punjab.
On April 19, 2023, a moving vehicle JK13D-1730 headed towards the valley was struck by firing stones near Digdool, killing the driver Maqsood Ahmed and his passenger Nabeed Ahmed, both Pulwama natives.
Waseem Azad, a native of Srinagar, was killed and his cousin Manzoor Azad was injured when shooting stones struck a valley-bound automobile with the licence plate JK01AA-9863 on March 7, 2020.
In the last several years, there have been many reports of firing stones striking and hurting people inside of moving automobiles on the Srinagar Jammu National Highway through the Ramban area.
The rocky and rugged terrain along the route is vulnerable to landslides, rockslides, and shooting stones, which may happen quickly and represent a serious risk to drivers, passengers, and other road users. This is particularly true between Nashri and Banihal.
Earlier this week, vehicle traffic was prohibited in the Hassanbass region of Ramsu to remove hanging boulders, as advised by officials to protect the lives and property of persons passing on the Srinagar Jammu National Highway.
Locals claim that there are various locations where there is still a risk of shooting stone, particularly during bad weather where excavation work for widening a two-lane roadway has been done.
Officials had said that the topography and the ongoing bad weather made it difficult to complete the four-lane project between Udhampur and Banihal. On the most exposed sections between Nashri and Banihal in the Ramban area, rock stabilisation, hill slope protection, and netting would help prevent occurrences of rock slides, shooting stones, and regular landslides.
The NHAI has been instructed to maintain the road correctly by Deputy Commissioner Ramban Mussarat Islam, who is directly overseeing the development of ongoing works for several national projects in the Ramban area.
Prior to the completion of the construction on the bridges or viaducts, NHAI, PIU, Ramban Purshotam Kumar, the project director, had informed Greater Kashmir that NHAI will proceed with hill protection or netting at critical parts.
