GILGIT, Nov 30: The Karakoram Highway was reopened on Saturday for the vehicular traffic, after a closure of nine days following an earthquake on Nov 21, 2002, which had caused heavy landslide.

Personnel of the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) restored the highway at the Tatupani area, some 120kms south of Gilgit, which was badly hit by the landfall.

Over 300 kilometres long portion of the highway between Gilgit and Challas was deeply eroded, and landslide had blocked the road at various places.

The blockade also hampered relief operations in the quake-hit areas of the Astore valley as the truckloads of aid from Islamabad could not reach there.

Officials of the Northern Areas Transport Corporation said they had started operating their buses between Gilgit and Rawalpindi from Saturday while the highway was restored on Friday for light traffic.