Shopian, August 4: The projected tunnel is in the works, and the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Mughal Road upgrade is almost finished after years of delays.
The preliminary design phase for the road DPR was initiated by the government in August of 2019.
Rodic Consultants Private Limited, in partnership with Getnisa-Euro studios of Madrid, was hired by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDC) to create the DPR.
“Rodic subsequently began working on the DPR and submitted a Preliminary Project Assessment (PPR), and then for a long time nothing more,” a Mughal Road Division employee said to Greater Kashmir.
He did, however, note that the consultant had recently showed seriousness by finishing the survey of the project.
“The report is now being prepared and is expected to be submitted in a couple of months,” the source added.
A representative from NHIDCL assured me that the route had been carefully scouted.
“We got an avalanche protection team from Chandigarh that comprised professionals involved in construction of the road,” he said. It was determined which alignment should be selected and how avalanches might be prevented by conducting a research throughout the full length and assessing the road’s workout feasibility.
The Mughal Road, according to the NHIDCL official, required the implementation of two DPRs.
The road requires a different DPR than the tunnel, he noted.
Raghunath Sharma, the general manager of NHIDCL’s projects division, also stated that the detailed project report (DPR) for rerouting traffic around hazardous areas was almost finished.
He promised that it will be sent in shortly.
However, Sharma cautioned that it would be some time before the DPR for the road tunnel was ready.
Samit Private Limited Company has been given responsibility for the tunnel’s DPR.
The advisory firm has calculated that the project would cost about Rs 5000 crore.
DPR is time-consuming because “the work involved is complex and requires geotechnical expertise,” as Sharma put it.
The road widening project report from the NHIDCL would be submitted shortly, according to Shahi Jan Itoo, executive engineer of the Mughal Road Division.
He remarked, “We have been meeting with NHIDCL on a regular basis to discuss the project.”
Currently, the only option to the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, which is often blocked during the winters due to landslides and shooting stones, is the old Mughal Road, which links Kashmir with Poonch through the southern Shopian region.
The 84-kilometer long Shopian-Poonch route was first envisioned in the 1970s, but it wasn’t accessible to LMVs until 2009.
Heavy snowfall at numerous spots, notably Peer Ki Gali and Bafliaz, closes the route during the winters, even though it would give an alternate connection to the outside world for Kashmir.
Despite the Center’s repeated claims, no significant progress has been made on the ambitious project in over a decade.
The tunnel’s development was prioritised in the 2015 Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the PDP-BJP coalition government.
The problem was afterwards brought up to the Union Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MORTH) on many occasions by the State’s roads and construction ministry.
In 2017, NHIDCL solicited bids from qualified experts to prepare the DPR and figure out the tunnel’s pre-construction steps after repeated requests from the State government.
There was an abrupt halt in the procurement process as the concessionaire claimed that the MoRTH had not given it permission to proceed with the project.
The NHIDC issued a new request for bids to widen the Mughal Road to two lanes and build the tunnel only days after Governor’s rule was imposed in the state in 2018.
The building of the project, however, was given a boost this year when Union Surface Minister Nitin Gadkari gave his blessing.
However, despite commitments from the government, the road is still being maintained by the Mughal Road Division of PWD and has not been transferred to NHIDCL.
Both sides are keen to see the project through to completion because they hope it will improve their lives.
“Despite guarantees by various governments, we have been repeatedly let down on our longstanding demand that tunnel construction begin immediately. One Poonch educator, Muhammad Rafiq, expressed optimism that the project will be prioritised and finished on schedule.
He argued that residents on both sides would benefit from the road’s accessibility if it were paved year-round.
Local Shopian journalist Ajaz Ahmad believes the tunnel would improve communication between regions and stimulate economic growth there.
