”13% work pending, safety checks to take one month’
The Chenani-Nashri tunnel, the passageway connecting Udhampur district with Ramban district on Jammu- Srinagar highway is likely to miss the July deadline as only 87 percent of works have been completed on the project so far.
Pertinently, the deadline for the 9 kilometer tunnel starting from 89 kilometers in Udhampur district to 130 Kilometers in Ramban district was initially set as May 2016, which was extended twice first up to June and then to July 16.
Sources informed that after completing the remaining 13 percent physical work, which includes construction of 9 kilometer tunnel road, installation of lighting and fire fighting equipments, the project would be put to extensive testing to check the quality of work and safety standards.
“After completing the remaining work, it (tunnel) has to pass the quality and commuters’ safety tests including response of disaster teams to deal with any un-toward incidents,” sources said adding, “the entire process will take more than one moth”.
“Most of the work on the tunnel has been completed. However, some stretches are incomplete. But being a covered area we cannot open it without testing,” R P Singh, Regional Director NHAI told Kashmir POST.
“We have to understand that it (tunnel) is not an open road, it is 9 kilometer covered area, so we need to be double sure about safety of the passengers,” he added.
Giving details about the quality and safety checks, he said these include testing level of suffocation inside the tunnel by passing vehicles, capacity of the installed machinery to exhaust the unwanted carbon-dioxide and to pump-in fresh oxygen and response of disaster teams in view of any untoward incident. “Keeping in view all these procedures the opening of tunnel for general public may get delayed by more than one-month,” Singh said.
It is in place to mention here that the scheduled date of completion of this Rs 2519 crore project was May 2016 and the executing agency was hopeful of finishing the job by December 2015, around five months ahead of the deadline. However due to dispute between construction workers and executing agency the work was delayed. Later it was supposed to thrown open in June but the deadline was further extended till July 16.
Once completed, the Chenani-Nashri tunnel will act as an all-weather alternative to the existing NH-1A section connecting Chenani in Udhampur with Nashri in Ramban districts.
It will reduce the existing road distance between the two points from 41 kilometers to 10.89 kilometers bypassing Kud-Patnitop-Batote circuit.
Meanwhile, work on four-laning of Udhampur- Chenani and Nashri-Ramban stretches of the National Highway, which was started in last week of December 2015, is going on at six locations.
