The 107-year-old tradition of half-yearly shuttling of the seat of governance between the summer and winter capitals inJammu and Kashmir is likely to continue even after the state gets bifurcated into two union territories on October 31.

All the top administrative offices, including the Governor''s house and the Secretariat, would move down to the winter capitalJammu this year also to keep up the tradition of the ''Darbar Move''.

The tradition of ''Darbar Move'' follows an over107-year-old practice set up by the erstwhile Dogra maharajas of the state.Every year, the offices close in Srinagar towards the end of October and startfunctioning in winter capital Jammu by the middle of November.

To coincide with the birthday of the country''s first HomeMinister and the unifier of Indian princely states into the Union of India,Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the two new union territories of Ladakh, and Jammuand Kashmir will officially come into existence on October 31.

"All procedures and processes pertaining to thebifurcation of the administrative control into the union territories have to becompleted before October 31. Due to the prevailing uncertainty in the Valley,public transport has been off the roads for the last 26 days while the movementof private transport gets seriously affected due to restrictions in some areasof Srinagar city," top sources said.

"Despite government servants reporting for duties on adaily basis to maintain essential services, attendance at administrativeoffices has not returned to normal completely yet."

As the situation in the winter capital Jammu has completelyreturned to normal, the need to shift the top administrative offices to Jammuthis year earlier than scheduled has become imperative to ensure smoothadministrative transition from statehood to two union territories in Jammu andKashmir and Ladakh, the sources added.

They said that the present Governor, Satya Pal Malik, islikely to continue as the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir unionterritory while a new administrator will be appointed for the union territoryof Ladakh.