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May, 2005
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Srinagar-Leh highway reopens after seven months

     Zojila Pass (J-K): Zojila Pass, the strategic highway at an altitude of 11,000 feet linking Srinagar and Leh in Jammu and Kashmir was reopened after remaining closed for nearly seven months due to snowfall. The highway links Srinagar with Ladakh. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) along with the local authorities worked overtime to clear the snow from the road as it snowed heavily this year. A convoy of Indian army passed through the road after the BRO declared it traffic-worthy. "This year the BRO (Border Road Organisation) along with the army personnel and locals have done a commendable job. I was not too sure that we could reopen the road before middle of June. But the people have done a very good job and my compliments to all of them," said Lieutenant General Nirbhay Sharma, general officer commander of 15 Corps, while flagging off the first vehicle from Srinagar. Locals, especially traders, were happy with the timely reopening of the highway despite the heaviest snowfall in four decades. "We are very happy with the reopening of the highway. We did not expect the road to open so soon as we had very heavy snowfall this year. We, the traders, are going to benefit a lot after the reopening as it will have a direct bearing on our livelihood," said Ghulam Rasool, a local trader. BRO undertakes snow clearance operations on all border roads in the mountainous Himalayan range every year, to facilitate movement of residents and military personnel to remote regions, usually cut-off due to snow from the rest of the country. The strategic Srinagar-Ladakh highway passes through the 11,578- foot high Zojila pass, which lies on the lower depression of the Himalayan range, about 100-kilometres from Srinagar. The pass attracts the heaviest snowfall during winter and as such it remains closed to traffic for nearly six months in a year. The accumulation of huge quantities of snow over the Zojila pass, which was unprecedented this year, presents the biggest hurdle to traffic on this road. The 434-kilometres long highway is Ladakh's lifeline and after the 1999 Kargil conflict, the Central government has stepped up the pace of alternative roads because of the strategic significance of the area. Another 2.43 billion rupees is being spent under Prime Minister's reconstruction programme on double- laning the Srinagar-Leh road. -May 20, 2005

Italian mountaineer killed, three others injured (Go to Top)

     Kathmandu: An Italian mountaineer has been killed and three others injured when an avalanche hit their base camp on Mount Annapurna in west Nepal, officials say. According to The BBC, officials have named the dead man as Christian Kuntner. They said that one of those injured was in a serious condition after Wednesday's avalanche. The dead man and his injured colleagues were taken to Kathmandu by helicopter. They are the first casualties in the Annapurna region during the spring climbing season.
- May 19, 2005

38 people die in a bus accident in Uttaranchal (Go to Top)

     Rudraprayag (Uttaranchal): About thirty-eight people were killed last night when a speeding bus fell down a gorge here. The victims, all members of a wedding party, were going from Garhwal to attend a wedding in the Chamoli district. While 25 people died on the spot, the rest succumbed to their injuries at the Chamoli hospital where they were taken for treatment. "It seems as if the bus swerved more than it was needed to its left to give a pass to another bus coming from the front. It also did not have control over its speed and fell down," U.D.Chowbey, District Magistrate of Rudraprayag, said. Eyewitnesses said the bus smashed drums filled with sand before falling 200 meters into the ditch. The hilly area has steep and mostly single lane roads and properly constructed parapets are missing at most sharp turns creating potential accident sites. The last few years have seen many fatal accidents, mostly of buses carrying wedding guests. Unlike buses run by state transport department, private buses employed by wedding parties are more at risk of meeting with accidents as they are packed more than their capacity. Many a times accidents are blamed on drunk drivers.
-May 18, 2005

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