SrinagarThe work on long-pending Zojila Pass tunnel, to be built on Srinagar-Ladakh highway, will begin on August 15, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corps Ltd. (NHIDCL) announced on Monday.
According to the NHIDCL Managing Director Anand Kumar the contract will be awarded by end of June for which four bids have been received, BloombergQuint reported.
The tunnel is part of the NDA-led government’s Rs 23,000-crore project of constructing five tunnels on the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh with all-weather access by 2024.
Work on Z morh tunnel which is 9.4 km in length will be completed by April 2020. ILFS is executing the project and has built 200 m ventillation duct till date, Kumar said, adding that detailed Project Report for Pir Ki Gali, Sinthan Pass, Shudhmahadev are being made.
Zojilla tunnels total project cost is Rs 8,000 crore and it will take seven years to complete after the foundation stone is laid on August 15 this year, said Kumar.
The project to build a 14-km single tube bi-directional Zojila tunnel was approved by the Cabinet during the previous UPA governments regime and it was to be built under public-private partnership (PPP) mode. But since April 2013, bids for this project were invited five times and on four occasions, single bids were received.
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