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Srinagar-Leh highway to reopen after remaining
closed for six months

         Srinagar-Leh highway: Border Roads Organisation (BRO) officials are toiling hard to reopen the Leh-Srinagar highway in Kashmir, which remains snow-blocked for six months. "Leh remains cut off from Kashmir for six months. We want to open the highway as soon as possible so that Leh and Kashmir could stay connected," said Abdul Rasheed, a BRO worker. The work which had started on March 9 is expected to be over within a month. The highway linking Srinagar with Ladakh region, passes through Zojila, one of the highest mountain passes of the world. The accumulation of snow over the Zojila Pass, presents the biggest hurdle to traffic on the road. The officials said though they were faced with many problems during the clearing operation, their past experience was what sailed them through the work. "We have to face a lot of problem while working to clear the highway. Our past experience and on basis of that we are working to clear the highway despite facing so many problems," said B. K. Mishra, Beacon official. Every year, BRO undertakes snow clearance operations on all border roads in the Himalayan range, to facilitate movement of people and military personnel to remote regions 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.
. -Mar 20, 2009

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