
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 tourist resort accessible throughout the year. The Prime Minister was joined for the inauguration ceremony by Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
The two-lane bi-directional road tunnel between Gagangir and Sonamarg in Ganderbal district in central Kashmir has been built at a cost of over Rs 2,700 crore. It is equipped with a parallel 7.5-metre-wide escape passage for emergencies. Situated at an altitude of over 8,650 feet above sea level, the tunnel will enhance all-weather connectivity between Srinagar and Sonamarg en route to Leh, bypassing landslide and avalanche routes.
Tunnel reduces travel time between Srinagar and Sonamarg
The Z-Morh tunnel has reduced travel time between Srinagar and Sonamarg allowing vehicles to travel at speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour compared to the earlier 30 kilometres per hour on the winding roads. The tunnel has a capacity of handling 1000 vehicles per hour. The tunnel has been built using the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM). The Z-Morh Tunnel is a two-lane, bi-directional road structure with a width of 10 metres.
More about the tunnel
The work on the Z-Morh tunnel began in May 2015. It took almost a decade to complete the works as Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), the initial concessionaire for executing the project, stopped work in 2018 due to financial stress. The project was retendered in 2019 and awarded to APCO Infratech in January 2020, which had emerged as the lowest bidder.
The foundation stone for the project was laid in October 2012 by CP Joshi, then Minister for Surface Transport during the UPA II government, in the presence of his then cabinet colleague Farooq Abdullah, then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. The tunnel was initially expected to be completed by 2016-2017.