(LiveMint)
India on Wednesday approved a strategic road transport project to boost all-weather connectivity between key sectors of Srinagar, Kargil and Leh in a bid to better secure its borders in Jammu and Kashmir.
The cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA), at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the construction, operation and maintenance of the two-lane, bi-directional Zoji La tunnel in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode. Security experts say that the new project will provide year-round access to the Leh region, which gets cut off due to bad weather in winter, allowing Indian security forces to check infiltration and stock up on crucial supplies and ammunition.
“The main objective of the project is to provide all-whether connectivity to the strategically important Leh region in Jammu and Kashmir which at the moment is limited to at best six months because of snow on the passes and threat of avalanches,” said a CCEA statement.
Minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said the project was crucial for two reasons—“for the defence personnel who can easily commute to Leh all year round” and “for connecting J&K with Leh which remains cut off from the country for six months in a year. Had the Zoji La Tunnel been constructed (earlier), India could have evaded the Kargil War,” he said, referring to the May-July 1999 conflict between India and Pakistan.
