The Defence Ministry has approved a proposal for keeping the Srinagar-Kargil highway open during winters as well. The UT administration of Ladakh has issued directions to the R&B department in this regard.
“The proposal of the Ladakh Rescue Centre for keeping openZojila (30 kilometres in total) has got approval of the Ministry of Defence.You are requested to give appropriate direction to the Mechanical DivisionKargil, and place adequate funds at their disposal facilitating them to conductthe work in coordination with Project Beacon and Vijayak this season itself,”reads the communication.
Keeping Zojila Pass open during winter months is a big taskfor the administration as according to official data this season theprecipitation level has been the highest since 1986 in this area.
The Union Government has already approved Zojila tunnel to befunded under Rs 80,000 crore Prime Minister’s Development Package, howeversince its announcement in 2015 there is no progress on the project.
According to officials, due to the delay, the project isfacing cost escalation of Rs 1600 crore.
The project cost for the 14.2 km tunnel was estimated at Rs6800 crore. After the Government of India scrapped an earlier contract awardedto the crisis-hit Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS),the cost has surged to Rs 8,400 crore.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has engagedthe NIHDCL, a fully-owned subsidiary of the union ministry of road transportand highways (MoRTH), for the bidding process of the tunnel.