Srinagr-Leh road opens April 15th (?)

vistet

On the news yesterday : the road is officially open to Sonamarg, the Zoji La has been cleared , according to the BRO , who also said that they see the whole road being open by April 15th . Regardless of this will hold true it seems like a new record time.

Official road status as always on leh.nic.in

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high road to ..

Indizen

The 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh National Highway will be put through on April 15, as five feet to 40 feet accumulated snow has been cleared, a senior BEACON official said.

We have removed all the snow from the highway, BEACON Chief Engineer A K Botaney said.
However, he said it will take about two weeks more to make the highway, linking Drass, second coldest place in the world, Kargil and Leh with the rest of the country, safe for traffic.
News report: Daily Excelsior, Jammu March 31, 2008
http://dailyexcelsior.com/

vistet

New confirmation from the BRO : the road is thrown open over the next two days :

Khak

from today's The Hindu

Zojila (J&K) (PTI): Despite fresh snowfall, the Srinagar-Leh road, which remained closed for four winter months, was reopened for traffic on Tuesday.

An army convoy, carrying essential commodities to the troops stationed in Kargil and Leh districts, was the first to travel on the 434-km road. The road was opened 45 days ahead of schedule.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad declared open the road in presence of General Officer Commanding of 15 Corps Lt Gen Mukesh Sabherwal.

Chief Engineer Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Brigadier D Palit said the road was initially opened for army convoy only.

He said the road was not fit for normal traffic yet as one and a half feet of fresh snowfall was witnessed at some places since yesterday.

Zojila Pass, situated at a height of 11,578 foot, attracts the heaviest snowfall during the winter and normally it remained closed to traffic for six to seven months in a year.

Palit said snow clearance operation was launched on the road from February 26 this year, two months earlier than schedule.

Average height of snow on the road at Zojila Pass was above ten feet and maximum height of snow avalanches was 40 feet, he said referring to the challenges which the BRO faced in making the road traffic worthy.

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~Khak~

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vistet

Enthusiasm quickly paled near the Zoji La as hundreds of freezing passengers had to wait for hours to have the road cleared from fresh avalanches , and engineers clearly were unhappy with the decision to have it thrown open at this early point.Road closed again.

Abhay_Mysore

Great. This means BRO kept its promised date of 15th April for opening Jozilla. But seems like it may still take about a week or two before tourists are allowed and road becomes motorable for civilian traffic.

Any idea about status with Rohtang???

Oops.. keep us posted.

vistet

The good news is that some already have went over the Rothang .. the bad is that they had to leave their cars behind

updates here

vistet

The Srinagar-Leh road marker on leh.nic.in shows green/open today ....

Let´s hope it lasts a little bit longer this time

Indizen

Srinagar-Leh road reopens again
KT NEWS SERVICE
SRINAGAR, Apr 22: The Srinagar-Leh road was reopened again today for vehicular traffic movement after it was closed six days ago due to heavy snowfall.
After remaining closed for at least six months, the 343 kilometer long Srinagar-Leh road was thrown open by chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on April 15.
According to an official of Border Roads Organization the road was closed six days ago due to snowfall and avalanches.
He said, "It was closed for traffic because of snowfall and avalanches at many places." The official added that avalanches created many problems. "Due to avalanches on the way, the road was not worth vehicular traffic movement and now it has been made traffic worthy," he said.
The BRO official added that since the opening of the road ,at least 150 vehicles crossed the Zojila for Leh and 139 came from Leh and reached Sonamarg.
The road remains closed from November to May 15 every year due to heavy snow fall.
Chief minister on the day of opening had termed it as a very important road. "This is an important road link as it connects Ladakh region with rest of the state and the country," Azad said and added, "It's early opening has significance for the people. He hoped that this would help dispatch essentials sooner to Ladakh region."

http://kashmirtimes.com/

solo_trekker

April 15 was obviously no time to open the Zoji la to regular tourist traffic.

Just because a date was set, it should not have become sacrosanct. And what happened...? The road was ceremoniously opened on the 15th, and closed again within 24 hours...!

There is always the danger of snow avalanches if opened earlier than usual. The early opening also meant additional effort for both man and machine - and it all came to nought.

This should not be a race against a set deadline, but depend on one and only thing - how the snowfall has been in the winter and how touch a job it is for the snow-cutting machines.

By the way, the Rohtang la opened on 15th May last year (2007) and this year the BRO (or the Government officials really) have set themselves a timeline of 30th April...!

Cheers...!

soledad

And, what about the Manali-Leh road ? Any chance of it being opened in the later half of May or not?