Panic buying of petrol, diesel in Kashmir amidst closure of Sgr-Jmu NH

Srinagar: 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 Srinagar-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.

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

“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.