Ganderbal: Business holders on Saturday demanded the Sonamarg road open throughout year as the tourist resort remains closed during winter months.
The national highway connecting Sonamarg resort usually remains closed during winters due to heavy snowfalls in the area and chances of snow avalanches and slides along the route from Gagangeer to Sonamarg.
The 6.5 km under-construction Z-Morh tunnel is part of a mega project and is being built at Gagangeer of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district to ensure round-the-year connectivity to tourist resort Sonamarg.
However, the hoteliers and pony-wallas are expecting that good number of tourists visit the resort after road remains open during winters too. “If the resort remains open throughout, we expect increase in number of tourists which will have good impact on our business,” a local pony-walla said.
On 4 October 2012, the then Union Roads Minister in presence of Rahul Gandhi and the then J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah laid foundation stone of the Z-Morh tunnel anticipating the completion of project in 2020.
