Four-lane road to Kahmir Valley soon

Ashutosh Kumar & Anurag Kumar Chaubey l New Delhi
To bring the Kashmir valley closer to the rest of the country, the Centre is likely to soon finalise contracts for four-laning of two key stretches on the Jammu-Srinagar highway. The expansion work on the 36-km Banihal-Ramban and 43-km Ramban-Udhampur stretches will require investments of about Rs 1,200 crore each.

With road expansion already progressing on four more sections and 14 tunnels coming up on the Jammu-Srinagar highway, the distance is likely to reduce to 236 km from 286 km now. The travel time will also come down to 5.5 hours from the present 10 hours once the upgrade is complete by 2016.

A senior National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) official said, "We have initiated the process of request for qualification for the Banihal-Ramban and Ramban-Udhampur stretches. We are putting the bidding process on a fast track and will
finalise the contracts by July this year."

The original highway is designed for not more than 300 vehicles per day. The highway calls for urgent upgrade as it is being used by 5,000 vehicles.