Geotechnical Investigation of Slopes along the National Highway (NH-1D) from Kargil to Leh, Jammu and Kashmir (India)

Abstract

The national highways are always considered as the economic backbone of the country and have often assisted development work all along their routes. The National Highway (NH-1D) is the most strategic and the only all weather surface link between the two districts of Ladakh region (Kargil and Leh). The area under investigation experiences high vehicular traffic, particularly between March and August, as in the remaining months the Kargil and Leh districts remain cutoff from each other due to bad weather. In recent years, frequent occurrences of slope failures along the highway primarily affect the smooth functioning of the traffic movement which severely affects the life of the people of the area. Strategically, this road network is very important and plays a significant role in transportation and other activities. In order to ensure the stability of road network in the area, it becomes extremely important to understand the triggering mechanism of these failures. The present study made an attempt in this direction and the Slope Mass Rating (SMR) method has been used for slope stability analysis at different locations. The stability of the slopes was also assessed using kinematic analysis conjointly with SMR to identify the types of failure and its potential failure directions associated with each slope. The result obtained after calculating RMR from the selected facets ranges from 11 to 89 with lower values indicating presence of potentially unstable areas. Results have shown that in a total of 20 facets, 65.28% belong to wedge failure, 22.26% belong to toppling failure and 12.45% belong to plane failure.

Landslide susceptibility assessment using GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) along a part of National Highway-1, Kashmir- Himalayas, India

“…It has been noted by Dikshit et al (2020) that landslide research is lacking in the North-Western Himalayas, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir. Research on landslides in this region is limited (Owen et al 2008;Khattak et al 2010;Mohammady et al 2012;Chingkhei et al 2013;Bilham and Bali 2014;Singh et al 2014;Hussain et al 2015;Singh and Som 2016;Sangra et al 2017;Hussain et al 2018;Nanda et al 2020a.b;Bashir and Ramkumar 2021;Abhijit et al 2021;Mohsin et al 2022). In the Kashmir Himalaya, roads are crucial for socioeconomic development.…”

Management of Landslides in a Rural–Urban Transition Zone Using Machine Learning Algorithms—A Case Study of a National Highway (NH-44), India, in the Rugged Himalayan Terrains

“…Most of the landslide events in this area take place during or immediately after a heavy spell of precipitation. Every year, the whole Kashmir valley and the UT of Leh and Ladakh are adversely impacted in terms of the loss of human lives and damage to the economy due to landslides on this segment of the NH-44 Highway [34]. Nearly 8000 accidents and 2000 deaths were recorded on this highway between 2000 and 2010 [35].…”