The bi-directional Zojila tunnel will span from Baltal in central Kashmir's Ganderbal district to Minimarg in Drass town of Ladakh's Kargil district
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00:00Chidmore Tunnel, which is now known as Sonmarg Tunnel, has been dedicated by the Prime Minister of the country to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
00:11I would like to tell you about my project.
00:16There are two parts of our project.
00:19The road from Sonmarg to Baltal is 18 km long.
00:24It is completely completed.
00:26The first plan was that the Prime Minister would go from the helipad to the Baltal portal of the Jojila Tunnel.
00:33But due to PMO and security reasons, some of the plans were changed.
00:38Maybe because of winter, the Prime Minister could not go there.
00:42But our 18 km long road has been completely completed.
00:48The 13 km long Jojila Tunnel, which is the mightiest highway tunnel in India, is still under construction.
01:02On December 2025, we will be successful in connecting Kashmir to Ladakh.
01:14We call this a tunnel breakthrough.
01:17It will be a road tunnel.
01:19But if there is an ambulance from Ladakh or if there is a need for defense, they can come from our tunnel to Srinagar.
01:32They can also go from Srinagar to Ladakh.
01:35There are about 1200 people working in the complete tunnel in winter.
01:43If the work does not stop in winter, which has been stopped for the past two seasons due to the threat,
01:51then in December 2027, people from Ladakh and Kashmir will start coming and going from the Jojila Tunnel at a speed of 80 km per hour.
02:03We are very sad because we have very good relations with the Jojila Tunnel company.
02:13We know their workers very well.
02:18At that time, we had a lot of support.
02:24We have about 1100 people.
02:27They are officers, trademen, technicians and laborers.
02:32They are residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
02:35The incident did not have much impact on our tunnel.
02:41Because the people of Kashmir, who work with us, have been witnessing such incidents since childhood.
02:49So it did not have much impact on our progress.
02:53Because 90% of the workforce with us is from Jammu and Kashmir.
02:59And the people of Jammu and Kashmir will be 100% successful in giving this tunnel to the country by 2027.
03:09The hard work, dedication and discipline of the Jammu and Kashmir engineers, tradesmen, workers, laborers,
03:17who are supporting us, I think the project will be completed before 2027.