AMN
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari today inspected Zojila Tunnel, Asia’s longest tunnel to establish all weather connectivity for Ladakh in presence of Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha. Currently, the average travel time to cross the Zojila Pass, sometimes, takes three hours. After the completion of the tunnel, the travel time will come down to 20 minutes. The tunnel will provide all-weather connectivity between Kashmir Valley and Ladakh, which will be extremely important for the development of Ladakh, promotion of tourism, free movement of local goods and movement of Indian armed forces in case of emergency.
According to an official release, nineteen tunnels are being constructed in Jammu and Kashmir at a cost of 25,000 crore rupees. Under this, the construction of 13.14 km long tunnel and approach road at a cost of 6800 crore is in progress in Zojila.
The work on the Tube-1 of the double-lane Kunfer Tunnel, connecting Peeda with Chanderkote along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway has been completed and the tunnel was likely to be thrown open for traffic within days. Our Jammu Correspondent reports that the 924 meters long Tube 1 of the Peeda-Kunfer Tunnel would bypass a 2.9 km congested, zigzag, and accident-prone area between Nashri and Ramban. The tunnel is a part of the ongoing four-lane project of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) between Udhampur and Ramban on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.