Srinagar, Dec 21: The historic 86-km-long historic Mughal road will be closed for winter months as there was no improvement in the road condition due to below freezing temperature, official sources said on Friday morning.
There is no chance of reopening of the road which remained closed for the past 12 days due to accumulation of snow and slippery road conditions, sources told media.
Though the accumulation of majority snow has been cleared but the road remained slippery due to below freezing temperature, they said adding the authorities also applied salt to melt the frozen surface of the road which too proved ineffective as road remain slippery.
The road is very slippery due to which there is a threat of accidents, they said adding the engineers from both sides of the Pir-Ki-Gali have already sent their report to Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, to declare the road closed for winter months as there is no chance of improvement of road conditions. Even during the day the temperature remained sub zero due to which road remained slippery.
The road, linking Shopian in south Kashmir with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region, will be officially declared closed for winter months in a day or two, sources said.
The Government of India (GoI) and state governments have already announced to construct a tunnel to make the road, which is seen as alternative to Srinagar-Jammu national highway, all weather road.