Costs up, rough road ahead for all-weather J-K highway

The plan to build an all-weather four-lane highway leading to Jammu from Srinagar is set to slow down with construction...

The plan to build an all-weather four-lane highway leading to Jammu from Srinagar is set to slow down with construction costs rising far above original estimates. The long awaited project is part of the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) ambitious North-South corridor. The four laning of the highway promises to upgrade the strategic corridor that connects the rest of the country to the Valley.

While NHAI had invited tenders for four laning of several reaches along some 300 kms from Jammu to Srinagar in July this year, the bids they received quoted prices 40 per cent above their estimates. As a result, the tender was scrapped. Now staring at estimates that suggest four laning in the difficult J&K terrain will cost Rs 20 crore per km, NHAI is figuring out ways to fund the high cost project.

“As per process, we have to now take the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) route but we know that not only will we get very few bids for such a project but private firm will demand exorbitant toll rates. Since toll is also fixed at Government rates, BOT option is also ruled out. Ultimately the Government will have to work out a way to fund the project itself but all this will take quite some time,” said a senior official from the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways.

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The project route running parallel to NH 1A along the Udhampur-Banihal-Khanbal-Srinagar route will include the country’s longest road tunnel.

At 9.25 km, the new road tunnel to be constructed from Banihal pass towards Qazigund area will not only be four times longer than the 2.7 km long Jawahar Tunnel, which is on the upper reaches of NH 1A, but also score lengthwise over the under construction 8,900-m long Rohtang Pass tunnel in Himachal Pradesh. The other tunnel will be constructed near Chinaini.

Around 318 kms between Srinagar, Banihal, Udhampur and Jammu are ‘projects on offer’ as per NHAI. Ministry sources say that NH 1A widening up to Srinagar will cost nearly Rs 7,500 crore up to a target date of 2012. The Ministry is hoping the strategic corridor will serve as an all-weather four-lane road upgrading transportation and connectivity to the region.

NH 1A has to be closed down every year for weeks due to heavy snowfall.

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