After seven years, drilling process on Banihal-Qazigund tunnel completed
Anantnag: After seven years, the drilling process on the Banihal-Qazigund, four way tunnel was completed on Thursday, officials said.
The construction of 8.4 Km long, two tube tunnel was started on July 25, 2011 by Nuyug Construction Company Private Limited while the foundation stone was laid by former Union Transport Minister C P Joshi in presence of the then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Dr Farooq Abdullah and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Officials said that the drilling process on the first tube of the tunnel was today completed while the process on the second tube is still on and will be completed shortly.
The tunnel as per the officials would decrease the distance between Srinagar and Jammu by 16 Kms and the most dangerous zone of Jawahar tunnel sector will be bypassed.
During the construction of tunnel, two persons died while dozens got injured, an official involved in the process said.
Talking to ‘Kashmir Vision’, Chief Electrical Engineer of Nuyug Constriction, Muneeb Tak said that the flow of water was creating problems inside the tunnel. “We have completed the drilling process while the rest of the work will also be completed soon,” he said.
Notably, the deadline set for the construction of the tunnel was 2017 but due to the 2016 unrest in the Valley, the company faced a lot of hardships in construction following which the deadline was extended by one year.
Meanwhile, the Employees working inside the tunnel were seen celebrating the completion of drilling process and were also seen congratulating each other for the success.
KV Correspondent
