Owais Gul
Srinagar, Jan 13: Union Minister of Road, Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari on Monday said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a total of 33 tunnels are coming up in Jammu and Kashmir while 15 amongst them have been already completed.
Addressing a gathering in Sonamarg after the inauguration of Z-Morh tunnel, Gadkari stated that the good roads lead to the progressive nation and thus the Prime Minister has been keen to develop the roads in Jammu and Kashmir to ensure the progress of the nation and achieve the goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’.
He added that many of the projects presently going on in Jammu and Kashmir including the Srinagar Ring Road, four corridors in J&K and others are expected to be completed and inaugurated by the end of this year.
Gadkari further stated that the tunnel inaugurated today will end up the misères of the people, who had to pile up essential stocks ahead of the winters, adding that another Zojila tunnel, which was earlier coming up at the cost of Rs 12,000 crore, is now being constructed at the cost of only Rs 6800 crore, thereby saving a whopping Rs 5000 crore.
He added that this tunnel will ensure round-the-year passage to the travelers from Srinagar-Leh, adding that the tunnel will reduce the travel time by 3 and a half hours.
Gadkari thanked the Prime Minister for his mission of boosting the infrastructure and also congratulated the people for witnessing the developments like Sonamarg tunnel, which according to him has come up at the cost of Rs 2,717 crore.
Terming the inauguration of the tunnel as the historic day for J&K, the Union Minister stated that the tunnel has been completed after hectic efforts.
He also said that infrastructure plays a crucial role in the country’s development, saying that augmenting the infrastructure plays a key role to make the country developed. He further added that water, energy, transport and communication are the four major things to promote industry, tourism and trade in the country.
The Union Minister also said that the Prime Minister has given them a responsibility to augment the infrastructural development to make Jammu and Kashmir progressive alongside the country.
He also said that the Prime Minister’s promise of ending the gap between Delhi and Kashmir ‘Delhi se Kashmir ki Doori’ is almost at the verge of completion as the new way coming up will reduce the travel time by 8 to 8 and a half hours in next few years.
Meanwhile, Gadkari said his ministry is building four corridors in the Union Territory at the cost of Rs 50,000 crore. Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar corridor, which is 250 km long, will be built at a cost of Rs 16,000 crores. We are trying to finish the project by the end of this year.
The second corridor is Jammu-Chenani-Anantnag, which is 202 km long and is being built at Rs 14,000 crore. It will be completed by December 2025, the minister said.
Five tunnels in this project will reduce the distance by 68 km, he added.
The third corridor is the Surankote-Shopian-Baramulla-Uri, which is 303 km long, being constructed at the cost of Rs 10,000 crore and will be completed by 2027, Gadkari said.
The fourth one is the Jammu-Akhnoor-Surankote-Poonch corridor, which is 203 km, and the project cost is Rs 5,000 crore. The DPR process has been started, he said, adding that all these corridors will be the lifeline of J-K.
He also announced that the DPR process has been started for another important corridor—Kathua-Basohli-Bhaderwah-Doda. (KNO)
