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Written by: VMS News Network

Created: 21 January 2019

SRINAGAR: Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari will dedicate to the nation a 1210-meter span-bridge over the river Raavi in Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow. This bridge has been constructed at a cost of Rs 158.84 crore to improve inter-state connectivity. This project will benefit over 2,20,000 people living on the two sides – Kathua in Jammu, and Pathankot in Punjab. This will reduce the distance between the two cities from 45 kms to 8.6 kms, which will save on both time and fuel cost.

The NH network in Jammu and Kashmir has seen an increase of 969 kms in the last four years. The total length of NHs in the State was 1695 kms in 2014, which has gone up to 2664 kms in 2018. Number of NHs has also gone up from seven to 14 in the meantime. New NHs of 969 kms were announced during the period. In addition, four State roads of 400 kms have also been approved.

Under the Prime Minister’s special development package (PMDP) for J&K announced on 7th November 2015, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways is executing 16 projects worth Rs 45,107 crore through NHAI, NHIDCL, State PWD and BRO. Of these, works worth Rs 30,000 crore have already started. NHAI is executing eight projects worth Rs 14,987 crore, NHIDCL/BRO – six projects costing Rs 24120 crore, and PWD – two projects for Rs 6,000 crore.

Two major road corridors are being built in J&K– Jammu–Srinagar and Srinagar–Leh. The Chenani-Nashri tunnel road under the first is the largest highway tunnel in the country. It has resulted in reducing the travel time between Jammu and Srinagar by two and a half hours, while the distance between the two has come down by 30 kms. The tunnel is benefitting by way of making travel possible throuout the year and saving of upto Rs 27 lakh worth fuel on the route.

The Zojila Tunnel for connecting Srinagar with Leh will be Asia’s longest 14.2 km long two-lane tunnel, which will prove to be a milestone all weather road in the forward region. This strategically important tunnel will drastically reduce the travel time from three and a half hours to just 15 minutes. About 26 per cent work of Rs 6,808 crore Z-turn tunnel and approach road on NH-1 has been completed on Srinagar-Leh Corridor.

A 62-km long 4-lane ring road is being constructed in the Srinagar city at the cost of Rs 1,860 crore. The road begins from Ganderbal on NH-44 and ends at Vayul on NH-1D. It will connect 54 villages in six districts. About 25 per cent work on the 58.255 km 4-lane Jammu Ring Road has been completed. The total cost of this project is Rs 1,891 crore. The project involves construction of eight major bridges, 22 minor bridges, six flyovers, and two tunnels of 770 meters and 710 meters respectively.