Connecting Kashmir: Banihal-Qazigund Tunnel along Jammu-Srinagar National Highway likely to complete by March

Banihal-Qazigund tunnel project: The work is nearing completion on the double tube 8.5-km-long Banihal-Qazigund tunnel along the 270-km-long Jammu-Srinagar NH and is expected to be thrown open to the public in the month of March. The work on the project, worth Rs 2100 crore started in June 2011 by the Navyuga engineering firm. On completion of the project, it would reduce the road distance between Banihal in Jammu province and Qazigund in south Kashmir by a distance of 16 km from the present 35 km. It will bypass Jawahar Tunnel as well as Shaitan Nalla, which is prone to heavy snowfall and slippery conditions during the winter season, according to a PTI report.