The ambitious project to bore a tunnel between Vailoo in South Kashmir and Singhpora in Kishtwar, once completed, will revolutionise road connectivity between the Kashmir Valley and the Doda region of Jammu.
Even as work continues on the road — which goes through one of the highest passes in the Himalayan region and will connect Kishtwar, the remote district in the Doda region, with Anantnag in South Kashmir — the tunnel will shorten the travelling distance from eight to two hours.
The Sinthan Pass, at 12,450 ft., ignored as one of the barren passes until a few years ago, is all set to gain importance once the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for handing it over to a consortium is complete.
The five-km-long tunnel will be financed by the Jammu and Kashmir Bank on a public-private-partnership basis. International bids will be invited to take up the work.
A team of consultants from Mumbai visited the area on Saturday to conduct an informal survey for making the DPR. They trekked 13 km to see how the work can be made possible.
“The technical partner will be selected through a global tendering process. J&K Bank is financing the project under special purpose vehicle,” a senior J&K Bank official said.
The team was accompanied by Minister for Roads and Buildings G.M. Saroori, who has been pivotal in pushing the project through. He later told TheHindu that the tunnel will be completed in two years, after the bidding is finalised, at a cost of Rs.400 crore.
Mr. Saroori said that under the Prime Minister's Reconstruction Plan, Rs.640 crore has already been earmarked for the road that passes through Sinthan.
Work halted in 2008
Work on the project was stopped in 2008 when militants killed four General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF) personnel, including a Lieutenant Colonel, on June 13 that year.
The GREF, a subsidiary of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), had been working on the project, which would not only shorten the distance between Kishtwar and Anantnag by six hours but also provide an alternative to the Srinagar-Jammu highway, which generally turns hostile during winter.
While the BRO proposed a six-km-long tunnel between Pahalgarh and Alan Gadole, the State government prefers a four-km-long tunnel from Singhpora and Vailoo.
“This is more viable as the work on the road on both these sides is complete and makes sense,” Mr. Saroori said.
The work is almost complete on the Anantnag side but only light vehicles from South Kashmir to Kishtwar ply on a daily basis. The Pass closes soon after the first snowfall until April.
A traveller has to cover 290 km to reach Kishtwar via the Srinagar-Jammu highway, and the Srinagar-Sinthan-Kishtwar road reduces the distance by 200 km. Earthwork and two-laning have been completed from Batote to Chatroo on the Kishtwar side, but the middle stretch needs a lot more work.
