SRINAGAR: The Divisional Administration Kashmir (DAK) today rebutted news published by Dainik Bhaskar on October 01, regarding movement of apple trucks from the valley to other parts of the country.

In an official handout issued by Divisional Administration, the observations made in news were termed as unfounded, misleading and mischievous.

In the handout the spokesperson of J&K Traffic Police Headquarter in response to the published news item by the newspaper said that as per the data collected by NHAI at the Qazigund toll plaza 51,306 trucks including 33,105 apple carrying trucks moved from Qazigund to other parts of the country via NH 44 from September 01 to September 30, 2022.

In a statement the spokesperson said that the entire backlog of trucks at Qazigund was cleared on September 26, 2022. He said that the daily flow of apple trucks from Kashmir valley to other parts of the country is only 1100 apple trucks per day not the higher figures of 2000 or 2500 apple trucks per day as is being claimed by vested interests. He adds that the daily flow of trucks from the Kashmir Valley towards Jammu and other parts of the country is only about 1600 trucks per day.

Keeping in view that the Down HMV traffic moves on alternate days, the maximum stranded trucks at Qazigund is only 1600 trucks unless the Down movement is hampered by partial or complete closure of the NH 44 due to shooting stones, landslides or repair work, reads the official handout.

Due to the shooting stones from September 24 to September 30, the National Highway remained blocked for 35 hours and 05 minutes while for repair works it remained closed for 17 hours and 31 minutes, the statement reads.

It may be noted that NHAI had requested for no traffic window of 4 hours per day for 5 days starting 24th Sept 2022, for repair works which were allowed by the Government, reads the statement.