Panic buying of petrol, diesel in Kashmir as Srinagar-Jammu national highway shut after landslides

Despite assurances from authorities about sufficient stocks of petrol and diesel in Kashmir to last for 17 days, the closure of the Jammu-Srinagar highway resulted in motorists mobbing various filling stations on Monday to fill the tanks of their vehicles.

Due to the washing away of a large portion of the national highway in Ramban district on Sunday, wild rumours are doing the rounds in the Valley about the restoration of the highway.

Traffic department officials advised travellers not to undertake the journey on the -Jammu highway today as restoration work was going on at the washed away stretch of the highway.

Rumours doing the rounds in the Valley said the restoration could take around 10 days.

Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, divisional commissioner (Kashmir), has issued a statement saying that there are sufficient stocks of petrol and diesel in the Valley to last for 17 days.

The assurance appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Trucks, buses, load carriers, jeeps, SUVs, cars and two-wheeler owners queued outside the various filling stations in Srinagar city and elsewhere in the Valley to have the tanks of their vehicles filled to the brim.

"This will result in exhaustion of our stocks because the demand created by panic buyers is more than thrice the daily demand in our filling station", said Noor Mohammad, the attendant of a filling station in Ganderbal district.

Cloudburst, hailstorm and incessant rain triggered landslides in Ramban district, killing three persons, while 100 people were rescued in the district on Sunday.

Large portions of the Jammu-Srinagar highway were washed away, taking down some vehicles with the landslide.

Officials said, "The flash floods caused massive damage to a four to five km stretch on the Jammu-Ramban Road (NH-44). The highway has been damaged at five places, which has stranded dozens of passenger vehicles, trucks and oil tankers."

It must be mentioned that all stocks of essential supplies, including petroleum products, are brought into the landlocked Valley through the .

(With inputs from IANS)