Revealed on: Aug 01, 2025 11:18 am IST
The tunnel is anticipated to scale back the typical time taken to cross the Himalayan Zojila move alongside the strategic Srinagar-Leh freeway from three hours to twenty minutes
The completion of the 13-km Zojila tunnel, Asia’s longest beforehand scheduled to be prepared by September 2026 for all-weather connectivity between Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh’s Leh, has been delayed by over two years. Union transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday informed Lok Sabha that the tunnel will now be accomplished by February 2028.
The tunnel is anticipated to scale back the typical time taken to cross Zojila, the 5,008 metre treacherous Himalayan move alongside the strategic Srinagar-Leh freeway, from three hours to twenty minutes. It goals to ease civilian visitors move and improve logistics help for armed forces deployed within the Ladakh sector, significantly in opposition to the backdrop of the 2020 standoff with China.
The standoff was triggered after a conflict in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley left 20 Indian troopers and at the least 4 Chinese language troops useless and plunged India-China ties to the bottom level in practically six many years.
Gadkari stated ₹3934.42 crore has to this point been spent on the ₹6809 crore mission. “The mission has been delayed as a result of a number of elements, together with the impression of the COVID-19 pandemic, a terrorist assault on the [nearby] Sonamarg Tunnel Mission [in 2024], and excessive opposed climate situations,” Gadkari stated in a reply to a query from the Nationwide Convention lawmaker Mian Altaf Ahmed Larvi (Jammu and Kashmir).
Gadkari stated that 64% of the mission is full and that 1,141 persons are employed for it. He added that 77% of the workforce is from Jammu and Kashmir, together with 28% from Larvi’s native Ganderbal district.
In January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Z-Morh tunnel at Sonamarg, one other essential a part of the all-weather connectivity between Srinagar and Leh. Ladakh doesn’t have all-weather highway connectivity with different components of India. Each the Srinagar-Leh and the Manali-Leh roads face weather-related closures for 5 months yearly.
