Jammu, April 11 (). Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that after the completion of the ongoing work on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, the travel time will come down to just three hours.
Gadkari told reporters in Banihal town of Ramban district that five tunnels will be built in a radius of 45 km between Ramban and Banihal, while one of them has been inaugurated.
The minister further said that once all the tunnels are completed, the travel time on the Srinagar-Jammu highway will come down to three hours. Today, we have achieved success on one tunnel and the next three will be completed by March next year. The fifth tunnel is a bit more difficult and may take a little longer.
A resort will also be built on the highway where Kashmiri handicrafts will be showcased. Once the highway and tunnels are ready, the road will connect to Katra and eventually Delhi.
In this way, Jammu and Kashmir will be connected to the rest of the country. We aim to cover Srinagar to Jammu in three hours, Katra to Delhi in six hours and Delhi to Srinagar in eight hours.
Better roads will help in the socio-economic development of the J&K UT and generate a lot of employment through tourism.
Further said that three corridors between Jammu and Srinagar are being built at a cost of Rs 35,000 crore. Under this, the first corridor from Jammu to Udhampur-Ramban-Banihal and further to Srinagar includes the section from Srinagar to Banihal.
This 4 lane road of 250 kilometer length is being built at a cost of Rs 16 thousand crore. Out of this, 210 km route has been completed with 4 laning, which includes 10 tunnels of 21.5 km.
Officials said that the four-lane road has been designed on the basis of geo-technical and geological investigations to overcome the possible landslides in the area. Crash barriers and other road safety measures have also been put in place to make travel between Jammu and Srinagar safe and smooth.
Gadkari had on Monday inspected the Zojila tunnel, the longest tunnel in Asia to establish all-weather connectivity to Ladakh. With the construction of this tunnel, there will be all-weather connectivity for Ladakh.
Currently the average travel time to cross the Zojila Pass sometimes takes three hours, after the completion of this tunnel the travel time will come down to 20 minutes. Reduction in travel time will result in fuel savings.
FZ/ANM
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