Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Nov 10: Journey to Udhampur from Jammu and vice-versa is all set to become more comfortable as the crucial Nandni tunnels are likely to be thrown open for all kinds of vehicular traffic by the ending of this month.
Final finishing is being given to all the four tube tunnels as well as the approach roads, including a bridge and it will take hardly two weeks for completion of entire work, official sources informed the Excelsior.
The final finishing includes work on lining in the tunnels, pavements and setting time to the slab on 30 meter long bridge between two tubes, sources explained while exuding confidence that all the tunnels will be thrown open for traffic by the end of this November, though one month late from the scheduled time.
The opening of Nandni tunnels T1 (210 meters), T2 (300 meters), T3 (330 meters) and T4 ( 540 meters on National Highway NH1A will not only further shorten the distance between Jammu and Udhampur but also make the journey more comfortable as the existing road on both sides of the old tunnels is full of curves and in extremely bad condition.
Earlier, these new tunnels were likely to be opened last month but the incessant rains that triggered flash floods and landslides in the State, completely struck the work for more than two weeks. Rain water entered the tubes and it took a number of days for dewatering to re-start the work, sources said.
Pertinent to mention here that the starting of work on Nandni tunnels was also held up due to delay in clearance by the Wildlife Protection Board. The area was handed over to National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in September 2012 for starting work with October 2014 as deadline.
With the commissioning of all four tubes at Nandni, the road widening of Jammu-Udhampur National Highway will be complete except a stretch of 4.3 kms at Udhampur By-pass and another at Chanaskotli near Jhajjar Kotli village.
The pending work on stretches at village Jakheni, Fangyal Garnai and Chanaskotli could not be started due to some procedural delay in acquisition of land and other related issues, sources explained.
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), which is the executing agency for the work on Jammu-Udhampur National Highway, requires at least six to nine months for completion of work on these leftover stretches after the land is handed over, sources added.
The Jammu-Udhampur road widening project is part of the NHAI’s flagship project of four-laning Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. The entire stretch of Jammu-Udhampur road has 64 major 2-lane bridges, 61 minor two lane bridges/underpasses, 4 twin tube tunnels of aggregate length 2.80 km and 220 culverts.
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