Banihal/ Qazigund, Apr 21: Prabhat Singh, a 50-year-old truck driver from Punjab, set off for Kashmir early last week with a truckload of rice.
After successfully unloading the goods in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, he began his return journey to Jammu.
However, upon reaching Banihal on Saturday night, Singh found the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway closed due to landslides and shooting stones triggered by incessant rains in the Ramban area.
With no option but to wait, Singh and his co-driver cooked dinner and spent the night in their truck, hopeful the highway would reopen by morning.
But relentless rain had severely damaged multiple stretches of the road in Ramban, with portions caving in, rendering it completely impassable.
The following morning, they prepared breakfast and lunch using their remaining supplies.
As the day wore on and the highway remained closed, they were forced to buy dinner from a local dhaba.
By Monday, the closure continued, deepening their anxiety as their cash reserves dwindled.
They managed to buy breakfast and lunch again but were left with almost no money.
“Whatever little money we had, we spent on food, tea, and water,” said Singh. “If the road does not open soon, we do not know what we will eat.”
With no clear timeline for reopening, Singh and many other stranded truckers now face growing uncertainty, dwindling resources, and mounting worry.
“We were expecting to reach home by Sunday. But now we are stuck here without basic resources,” said Budgu Singh Walia, 52, another trucker from Punjab, who had delivered a truckload of snacks and biscuits to Srinagar before beginning his return journey.
“Our families are worried. They have been calling constantly, asking when we will be back,” he said. “We are eagerly waiting for the road to open, but the wait feels endless.”
Erratic weather has made things even worse for the truckers.
“We did not expect such a sudden change. It has been raining non-stop, with strong winds and even hailstorms. It is extremely cold, and we are not carrying any woollen clothes. Spending the night is especially unbearable,” said Amardeep Singh, a 58-year-old trucker from Delhi who delivered supplies for the Army in Srinagar.
Several Kashmiri truckers transporting apples have also been stranded at Qazigund and Banihal.
“We left two days ago with a truckload of apples, but we have been stuck here ever since,” said Tariq Ahmad, 40, from Kupwara. “If the highway doesn’t reopen soon, we might have to take the Mughal Road.”
However, with heavy traffic already reported on the Mughal Road, Ahmad and others are choosing to wait.
