Jammu: Hundreds of passengers Sunday accused  traffic police of playing foul by announcing opening of Jammu-Srinagar highway despite slippery conditions at Batote-Patnitop stretch of the 300 kilometre road link connecting Valley with rest of the world.
The passengers said they had  to face  tremendous hardships as there was total “chaos and confusion” on the stretch.
A number of passengers, who were stranded for hours on the highway from Batote to Patnitop, called Kashmir Reader and said that they faced difficulties due to slippery roads. “We had to spend the whole night with our little children in our vehicles only because authorities allowed us to move towards Jammu. If they knew that the road was slippery why did they allow vehicles from Ramban,” they said.
They said that it took them about 12 hours to cover a distance of mere 12 kilometres due to “misinformation.” “Without clearing the highway of vehicles coming from Srinagar to Ja mmu, the authorities allowed the vehicular movement from Jammu to Srinagar which resulted in chaos and confusion,” they said. When contacted IGP Traffic, Kashmir, Muneer Ahmad Khan tried to downplay the issue as  “a routine matter.”

KR Desk