Over a century ago, the best road connectivity to Srinagar was not from Jammu. From Delhi, the best way to come to Kashmir was to go to Lahore first and from there to Kohala, the last border outpost of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Maharaja Pratap Singh commissioned work on the road from Kohala to Baramulla, via Muzaffarabad, which eventually connected Srinagar. Kohala still continues to be the border outpost of Pakistan occupied Kashmir while Muzaffarabad is its capital. The Jhelum Valley Cart Road from Kohala to Baramulla, then famous as ‘the most wonderful mountain road in the world’, was completed in 1889 and was extended to Srinagar in 1897. Prior to the advent of the automobile in Kashmir, travellers to Kashmir made the journey in a two-horse four-seater tonga or a single-horse two-seater ekka.
The current Jammu-Srinagar Highway, then known as Banihal Cart Road, was thrown open for public transport in 1922.
The current Srinagar-Baramulla Road is also often called as Jehlum Valley road which connected Srinagar to Muzaffarabad before the division of Jammu and Kashmir. The bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad was snapped in 1948. As part of India-Pakistan Confidence Building Measures, a passenger bus service was restored on the Jehlum Valley Road in 2005 but was again suspended in 2019 as the relations between two countries deteriorated following Pulwama terror attack
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