Union Minister for Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari is scheduled to visit the Chenani- Nashri tunnel on July 13 when it reaches the "breakthrough point" in which the two ends of tunnel will be connected at Udhampur district.
"The Union Minister for Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari will be visiting the site of the tunnel on July 13 to attend a function on reaching the breakthrough point of the tunnel," said, R P Singh, Director, National Highway Authority of India.
"We are holding a ceremony to celebrate reaching to the breakthrough point on the Chenani-Nashri tunnel as we have reached a point where both the ends of the tunnel meet inside the tunnel," Singh said.
The work on the one of India's largest road tunnel, the Chenani-Nashri tunnel on the Jammu Srinagar National Highway, is expected to be completed by June next year, a senior official said.
He said they have reached the breakthough point in just 47 months which in itself is a first of its kind in the Himalayan region.
"It will take 10 or 11 more months to throw the tunnel open for traffic, as we have to carry out other works inside the tunnel" he said.
The work on the tunnel, costing Rs 2,518 crore, was started in May, 2012. The tunnel is part of the four-lanning north-south corridor project which involves construction of a 10.9 km-long highway, including two 9 km-long tunnels.
The New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) of sequential excavation and support is being used to construct the tunnel, Singh said.
