Nishikant Khajuria
CHENANI, July 13: Union Minister for Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari today announced that highway projects worth Rs 25,000 crore will be undertaken in Jammu and Kashmir this year.
“To bolster economic growth of J&K, Narendra Modi-Government is committed for doing more work in 5 years in the State then what was done in the last 50 years and in this connection, we will do projects worth Rs 25,000 crore this year,” he said here today at the final blast ceremony connecting both ends of the main tube of Rs 3,720 crore Chenani-Nashri tunnel project.
Maintaining that the Central Government was giving top priority to the National Highway projects, Mr Gadkari said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was personally monitoring the infrastructure development initiatives. He informed that work on the 14-km long Zozika tunnel would also start soon and better infrastructure will result in better traffic flow in the State.
The Union Minister said that Chenani-Nashri tunnel, which is part of Rs 12,000 crore Jammu-Srinagar National Highway project, will be completed by May next year and shall be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “On completion of the entire project, the distance between Jammu and Kashmir regions will be reduced by 91 km and it will also lead to saving of fuel worth Rs 27 lakh per day,” he said .
Terming the tunnel work as a historic milestone, Gadkari said it will contribute significantly to the programme and idea of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Made in India’ as an Indian company has carried out the project. “In spite of many odds, due to the untiring efforts of Engineers and technicians, it has been possible to complete excavation of 19 km tunnelling in less than 4 years time, which is record in Himalayan Geological condition by New Austrian Tunnelling Method,” the minister said.
Stating that the tunnel will not only better integrate people of Jammu with those in the Kashmir valley but also with the people of Kishtwar, Doda and Bhaderwah by providing better connectivity and reduced travel time, the Union Minister said that after completion of the project, economic activities will improve in J&K due to an increase in tourism.
While referring to the projects, submitted to him by J&K Ministers, the Union Minister for Surface Transport said the Centre would give a positive consideration to the proposals.
Earlier, the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh drew attention towards various road projects initiated by the Centre in Jammu Kashmir and said that frequent visits of the Union Ministers to the State were an indication that the Modi-led Government was committed for overall development of J&K. “The Centre has sanctioned Rs 4500 crores for different road projects in J&K while Rs 10,000 crore Zozika- pass tunnel is in pipeline and likely to be sanctioned soon,” he said and added that the initiatives envisaged by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee are taking shape under the Modi-led Government in Centre.
Earlier, the Union Minister formally pressed the button from parallel escape tunnel for final blasting to connect both ends of the main tube. Besides Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, MoS Revenue Sunil Sharma, MoS Finance Pawan Gupta, NHAI Member (Finance) Satish Chandra, NHAI CGM (J&K) BS Singla, NHAI Regional Officer (J&K) RP Singh, ILF&S Transportation Network MD Ramchand Karunakaran and ITNL’s Mukund Sapre were present on the occasion.
The tunnel, connecting Chenani with Nashri in Ramban area, will cut the distance between Jammu and Kashmir by about 31-km and reduce travel time by about two hours. The existing highway stretch between Chenani and Nashri encounters frequent landslides, particularly during rainy season, thus leading to closing of vital road link between Jammu and Kashmir valley for days together. This tunnel will be the first in India equipped with world class Integrated Tunnel Control System’ (ITCS) through which ventilation, fire control, signals, communication, electrical systems tolling, etc will be automatically actuated.
The construction of the project is being done by IL&FS Transportation Networks which had started work on it in May 2011. The milestone was achieved despite huge challenges on account of tough geological and weather conditions.
The Chenani-Nashri Tunnel project involves construction of about 9 km of 2 lane main tunnels along with parallel escape tunnel in the tough lower Himalayan mountain range, which is passing through difficult geological conditions.
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