Srinagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the commencement of work on Zojila Tunnel, lay the foundation stone for Srinagar Ring Road and Jammu Ring Road during his visit to state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Modi will be coming to J&K on May 19 i.e Saturday.
Modi will attend commencement of work on Zojila Tunnel on the Srinagar-Leh National Highway at an event in Jive-tsal in Leh tomorrow.
He will also lay the foundation stone for Srinagar Ring Road and Jammu Ring Road at separate events at Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre (AKICC), Srinagar and at General Zorawar Singh Auditorium in Jammu the same day.
Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari will also be present at the events.
“The 14 km long Zojila tunnel will be India’s longest road tunnel and Asia’s longest bidirectional tunnel. Construction, operation and maintenance of this 2-lane bi-directional tunnel with Parallel Escape (Egress) tunnel between Baltal and Minamarg on the Srinagar-Leh section of NH-1A at a total cost of Rs 6800 crore was approved earlier this year,” official handout said.
The tunnel, govt believes, will also cut down the time taken to cross the Zojila pass from the present 3.5 hours to just 15 minutes, besides making the drive much safer and convenient.
“The 42.1 Km, 4 lane Srinagar Ring Road will link Galandar in West Srinagar to Sumbal. Being built at a cost of Rs 1860 crore, this road will provide a new route from Srinagar to Kargil and Leh, and reduce travel time. There will be a major bridge, three flyovers, 23 tunnels and 2 via-ducts on this route,” the handout reads.
On Jammu Ring Road it said that the the 58.25 km, 4-lane JRR, being built at a cost of Rs 2023.87 crore, will link Jagati (western Jammu ) to Raya Morh. There will be 8 large bridges, 6 flyovers, 2 tunnels and 4 via ducts on this route.
