SRINAGAR:  After closure for over 60 days, the strategic Srinagar-Leh National Highway (NH) was thrown open for vehicular traffic by the Border Road Organization (BRO) Today, March 17, 2023.

After a successful trial movement, the civil administrations of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh Union Territories will jointly inspect the route before deciding whether to reopen it for civilian traffic.

The strategic pass of Zojila is essential to the military's operational readiness since it connects the Kashmir Valley to Ladakh. Due to the extended snowfall, it used to be closed for roughly six months. Yet in recent years, the BRO has begun reopening it more quickly. It was cleaned up this year in a record-breaking 68 days.

Lt Gen Chaudhary said in a statement to media that the opening of the pass is significant from both a strategic and socioeconomic standpoint. 

The BRO has started opening this route earlier than usual, allowing the people of Ladakh to travel to Srinagar for their needs, medical situations, or even trade and commerce, he said. Formerly, the people of Ladakh were cut off for around five to six months.He said that the pass's reopening will boost the area's economy.

The inhabitants of Kargil, Drass, and Leh gain a lot from the opening of this route, he said, and tourism also becomes more accessible as a result. He claimed that the reopening had significant advantages for the federal government as well.

Both nations have stationed thousands of soldiers and heavy weaponry along the Line of Actual Control following a military stalemate in the Ladakh sector in May 2020 that resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and five Chinese soldiers in the Galwan Valley. Since the conflict in Galwan, ties between the two nations have never been worse.

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