Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari will attend the breakthrough ceremony at the strategically important Zojila Tunnel, located on the border of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on June 9, a senior official of the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) said.
The 13.15-km tunnel, which passes through the Zojila Pass on the Srinagar-Leh National Highway, will connect Baltal in Kashmir’s Ganderbal district with Meenamarg in Kargil, Ladakh, reducing the over three-hour journey to just 15 minutes. The total approved cost of the project is $Rs 6,808.69 crore.
However, when asked if the entire road project, including approach roads and ventilation systems, would be commissioned before the February 2028 deadline that Gadkari had said in Parliament last year, the official refused to provide further details.
This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Z-Morh Tunnel in Sonamarg in January 2025.
These two tunnels are central to India’s ambitious plan for all-weather connectivity between Srinagar and Leh, enhancing military mobility and logistical support for forces deployed in the Ladakh sector and tourism.
Once completed, Zojila Tunnel will be the longest road tunnel in India and the longest two-way tunnel in Asia at an altitude of 11,578 feet.
The tunnel is also of great strategic importance, as it enables faster movement of troops and supplies to the border areas close to both the Line of Control and the Line of Actual Control.
Read also:Completion of Zojila Tunnel delayed by more than two years: Nitin Gadkari tells Lok Sabha
The original deadline for the project under the current plan was September 2026, with the ceremonial blasting led by Gadkari in October 2020.
However, delays caused by the pandemic, the terrorist attack on the nearby Sonamarg Tunnel Project, and extreme weather conditions led to the completion date being postponed.
Before this, Modi laid the foundation stone in May 2018 after Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) won the contract which was terminated in January 2019 after the group was mired in financial difficulties.
Gadkari sent the project for review by a team of experts, and once the report was approved in May 2020, bids were invited in June 2020.
The project was later awarded to Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL), with work officially opening on 15 October 2020.
In 2025, two avalanches not only stopped work, but also forced MEIL to evacuate more than 1,000 workers from the area for safety reasons.
As HT previously reported, efforts by the Border Roads Organization (BRO) to keep Zojila open this winter have faced avalanche-related setbacks, underscoring the extreme conditions that make this pass one of the most dangerous in the world.
