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The Zojila Tunnel task is acceptable to execute a cardinal milestone with its last breakthrough scheduled for June 9. The tunnel, being executed by Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd. (MEIL) for the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL), volition supply all-weather connectivity betwixt the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari is expected to be the breakthrough ceremony.
At 13.153 km, the Zojila Tunnel is the world’s longest single-tube bi-directional roadworthy passageway astatine the highest altitude. It stretches from Baltal adjacent Sonamarg to Meenamarg successful the Drass-Kargil region, astatine an elevation of astir 11,578 feet supra oversea level.
The wide task spans 30.894 km, including roads and bridges. Apart from the main tunnel, it includes the 457.35-metre Nilgrar Tunnel T1 and the 1,953.63-metre Nilgrar Tunnel T2. The task besides comprises 3 bridges with a combined magnitude of 460 metres, 7 cut-and-cover structures extending 2,350 metres and a 450-metre snowfall gallery.
In addition, it features India’s longest vertical shaft measuring 474.3 metres, on with 2 different shafts of 367.38 metres and 213.5 metres for ventilation and exigency safety.
The task aims to code longstanding connectivity issues caused by the seasonal closure of the Zojila Pass owed to dense snowfall, avalanches and utmost weather.
Constructed utilizing the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM), the passageway is considered a large engineering inaugural successful upland infrastructure. Once operational, it volition guarantee all-weather entree betwixt Srinagar and Ladakh, improving connectivity to Drass, Kargil and Leh.
It is besides expected to heighten civilian movement, logistics and strategical mobility successful the borderline region, portion supporting economical enactment and tourism.
For execution, MEIL established a basal campy accommodating implicit 1,100 unit and deployed dense equipment, including trucks, loaders, excavators, batching plants, crushing units and precocious drilling machinery.
