Z-Morh tunnel: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated the 6.4 km-long Z-Morh tunnel in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir. The tunnel will make the Sonamarg vacationer resort accessible all year long. The Prime Minister was joined for the inauguration ceremony by Union Floor Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
The 2-lane bi-directional street tunnel between Gagangir and Sonamarg in Ganderbal district in central Kashmir has been constructed at a value of over Rs 2,700 crore. It’s geared up with a parallel 7.5-metre-wide escape passage for emergencies. Located at an altitude of over 8,650 toes above sea degree, the tunnel will improve all-weather connectivity between Srinagar and Sonamarg en path to Leh, bypassing landslide and avalanche routes.
Tunnel reduces journey time between Srinagar and Sonamarg
The Z-Morh tunnel has lowered journey time between Srinagar and Sonamarg permitting autos to journey at speeds of as much as 70 kilometers per hour in comparison with the sooner 30 kilometres per hour on the winding roads. The tunnel has a capability of dealing with 1000 autos per hour. The tunnel has been constructed utilizing the New Austrian Tunneling Technique (NATM). The Z-Morh Tunnel is a two-lane, bi-directional street construction with a width of 10 metres.
Extra concerning the tunnel
The work on the Z-Morh tunnel started in Might 2015. It took virtually a decade to finish the works as Infrastructure Leasing & Monetary Companies (IL&FS), the preliminary concessionaire for executing the mission, stopped work in 2018 resulting from monetary stress. The mission was retendered in 2019 and awarded to APCO Infratech in January 2020, which had emerged because the lowest bidder.
The inspiration stone for the mission was laid in October 2012 by CP Joshi, then Minister for Floor Transport throughout the UPA II authorities, within the presence of his then cupboard colleague Farooq Abdullah, then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. The tunnel was initially anticipated to be accomplished by 2016-2017.