The construction of the Zojila tunnel for all-year connectivity between Leh and Srinagar will start from Thursday (October 15).
Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways Nitin Gadkari will initiate the first blasting for the Zojila tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir, the government said on Wednesday.
The tunnel will provide all-weather connectivity between Srinagar valley and Leh on NH-1.
The project involved the construction of a 14.15 Km long tunnel at an altitude of about 3000 meeter under Zojila pass on NH-1 connecting Srinagar and Leh through Dras & Kargil, said a statement from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
The tunnel project holds strategic significance as Zojila Pass is situated at an altitude of 11,578 feet on the 434-km Srinagar-Kargil-Leh national highway and remains closed during winters due to heavy snowfall, cutting off the Ladakh region from Kashmir.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2018 laid the foundation stone for the project, billed as Asia's longest bi-directional tunnel.
The project, which would cut down the 3.5-hour long drive through the mountainous Zojila Pass to just 15 minutes, is expected to be completed in seven years.
The project was first conceived in 2005 and its Detailed Project Report (DPR) was prepared by Border Road Organusation (BRO) in the year 2013 on BOT (Annuity) mode. Attempts to award the project four times weren’t successful. In 2016 work was awarded to IL&FS, but the company went into financial problems and the project was stuck. This led to terminating contracts in 2019, the statement said.
Again NHIDCL ( National Highways Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited), a company owned by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, invited fresh bids in 2020 and awarded the project to Hyderabad based M/s. Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Limited which quoted a rate of Rs 4509.50 crore.
The capital cost of approach road from Zozila Tunnel to Z-Morh tunnel (18.63 Km) to make the road all-weather was worked out to be Rs.2,335 crores as per the detailed project report, said the statement.