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Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday that the travel time between Mumbai to Srinagar in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be reduced to just 20 hours by road.
The minister said in Lok Sabha that at present, 1000 people are working inside the Zojila Tunnel, that too in -8°C and one will be able to reach Mumbai within 20 hours from Srinagar before the end of this year.
Last year, during his visit to review progress of work on Zojila and Z Morh tunnels in Sonamarg Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that extensive road networks in the Himalayan Region will help boost the tourism sector in the area. The minister is on a two day visit to the Union territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
Nitin Gadkari that Zojila tunnel project will provide all weather connectivity to the Union Territory of Ladakh. He assured that work on the Zojila Tunnel is in full capacity and NHIDCL is geared up to continue the work in winter months. He stressed for putting in every effort in place to complete the project well before the scheduled date.
Zojila tunnel will be India’s longest road tunnel and Asia’s longest bi-directional tunnel. Several bridges are being constructed along this route and a connecting tunnel from Z-Morh in the National Highway-1 to Zojila tunnel will be constructed in the Zojila Ghats between Sonamarg and Kargil. The entire work is divided into two divisions in the 33 km span.
The project site of Zojila tunnel is located at existing highway (NH-01) starting from Sonamarg (UT of J&K) and ending at Minamarg (UT of Ladakh) at an elevation ranging from 2700m to 3300m, thus making the Zojila Tunnel (13.2 km) the longest tunnel at this elevation in Asia region. The present site location falls into seismic zone IV and all precautionary measures have been provisioned to safeguard the structures provisioned in the project.
