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Srinagar-Leh highway to re-open

          Srinagar: The Srinagar-Leh national highway, closed during winter, will be re-opened for vehicular traffic today. Srinagar-Leh highway is 434 kilometers long and is the only surface link between Kashmir and Ladakh. The Zojila Pass will be officially declared re-open by Lieutenant General A S Sekhon, General Officer Commanding of the 15 Corps of the Army, by flagging-off a trial run of an Army convoy carrying essential provisions for the troops deployed in the Ladakh region. Zojila Pass joins Kashmir with the Indus valley, which is strategically the most important part of Ladakh, through the Srinagar-Leh highway. The highway would remain open for the next six months. It was closed for vehicular traffic at the beginning of the winter season in November 2006. The road linking Srinagar and Leh was declared a National Highway-1D (NH-1D) last year. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), under the Project Beacon, in coordination with Project Himank, deployed the snow clearance machinery and workers along the highway to clean the road for vehicular traffic. About 30-40 feet thick snow had accumulated at various points along the highway. A major part of the highway is prone to avalanche.
-May 1,  2007