Yatra suspended due to heavy rains, National Highway closed

Incessant rainfall at several places in the state today forced authorities to suspend the pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas and also led to closure of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.
"Heavy rainfall has been going on at several places along the Jammu Srinagar national highway, thus badly hampering the road opening operations by the Border Road organisation (BRO). The Amarnath Yatra was also temporarily suspended and no Yatri vehicle was allowed to move forward," SSP Traffic (NH) Sanjay Kotwal told PTI.
He said that machinery of the BRO has been kept on standby and as soon as the rain stops they would start working to reopen the Highway.

"We are waiting for the rains to stop as soon as it stops the men and machinery would resume the road opening operation," Kotwal said.
He said that following the closure of the highway no Amarnath bound vehicle was allowed to move on the highway. "The Yatra was halted at the Bhagwati Nagar base camp," he said.
The official further said that no vehicle would be allowed to ply on the highway till it is fully restored for the traffic.

"There have been landslides at several places and the rainfall is adding to the problem, no vehicle will be allowed from either side until the highway is fully restored," he said.

He said that though the Batote-Doda highway was open for the vehicular traffic, the continuous rainfall was making the movement of traffic dangerous.
Meanwhile, the pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas was suspended from both the routes in view of inclement weather.
"The yatra has been suspended from both Baltal and Pahalgam routes due to rains which made the track slippery," police said.
No pilgrim would be allowed to move towards the holy cave shrine from either of the base camps till the weather improves, they added.