“This will tremendously help the relief effort,” said chief military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan.

The roads were shut by landslides set off by Saturday’s 7.6 magnitude tremor and desperate residents in the area have received little or no aid more than 48 hours after the disaster.

Sultan said authorities had reopened the two roads that lead to Muzaffarabad, the devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir, one going through the hill town of Murree and another through Gari Habibullah.

The road linking the northwestern city of Mansehra to Balakot is also open, although a key bridge over the Kunhar river that dividing Balakot remains unsafe, he added.

“We are in a position to move the relief and heavy equipment to clear debris,” he added. “Army trucks carrying relief goods and reaching that area now to Muzaffarabad and Balakot.”