Srinagar, April 9 (IANS): The Jammu-Srinagar highway remained open on Thursday for traffic from Jammu to Srinagar in a bid to ease the shortages of essentials in the Kashmir Valley.

On Wednesday, more than 6,000 vehicles moved from Srinagar to Jammu, a traffic department officer said. These included 2,000 light motor vehicles and 4,600 heavy motor vehicles.

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has directed the administration to make the highway motorable and fill the ditches. The road caved in at several places due to incessant rains last week.

Heavy machinery was deployed at Peda, Gangroo and Magarkoteto on the highway, an officer told IANS.

The Srinagar-Jammu highway runs through an extremely treacherous hilly terrain and gets closed due to rains or snowfall.

The over 300-km highway forms the lifeline for the Kashmir Valley. Its closure creates shortages of essential commodities. The crisis is worsened by profiteers and black-marketers.