Srinagar:  Traffic will remain suspended for weekly maintenance on Wednesday on the 270-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the only all-weather road connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country.

The national highway, linking Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh with Kashmir and the historic 86-km-long Mughal road also remained closed, a traffic police official said today.

He said in view of the weekly maintenance of the highway, no traffic was allowed from Srinagar or Jammu today, he said.

The administration has declared Wednesday as maintenance day to allow the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to undertake weekly repair of the road, particularly between Nashree and Jawahar tunnel, he said.

Weekly repair of the highway was announced by the administration after traffic was being frequently disrupted due to landslides and shooting stones.
Traffic on the Srinagar-Leh national highway also remained suspended due to the accumulation of snow and avalanches since January 1.

Meanwhile, authorities are operating air sorties to airlift the passengers between Leh, Kargil, Jammu, Srinagar and Chandigarh in view of the closeure of the highway.

The historic Mughal road, connecting Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch also remained closed since December last year. However, residents living on both sides of the road alleged that though snow clearance operation has been completed, traffic has not been resumed on the road, seen as an alternative to the Srinagar-Jammu highway.