Over one-month needed to restore road link with occupied Srinagar

24 Oct, 2005

Occupied Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road link will take more than a month to be reopened to traffic, which was damaged at several stretches in the October 8 earthquake.
According to the defence sources, an eight-kilometre stretch from Jhula to Kaman Post in Indian occupied Kashmir had collapsed and it will take one and-a-half months to make it traffic-worthy, said a news report.
Repairs on the 'Aman Setu' (peace bridge) on the Srinagar-Muzaffarbad road will be taken up only after the road to Kaman post was made motorable, added the report.
One of the spans of the Aman Setu on the Pakistani side is completely damaged after a part of a hill came down on it during the quake, the sources added.
IOK Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who visited Uri and other affected areas on Saturday, said he had asked the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to speed up the process of restoration of the road to Kaman post as it will facilitate sending relief to the people across the border.
Roads were also being repaired in Kupwara and Baramulla, the worst-hit districts in the quake, the sources said adding, the road to Titwal, a historic town on the LoC in Kupwara sector, was finally opened, enabling supply of much-needed relief to the residents.
The Chanipora-Tord-Karnah road, badly damaged in the quake, was also opened to traffic on Sunday. The opening of the road will help in carrying relief operations more effectively in the 14 cut-off villages in Karnah tehsil, the report said.

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