NEW DELHI: The proposal to build two tunnels — Singhpora-Vailoo and Sudhmahadev-Dranga — on the Anantnag-Chenani corridor in J&K has hit hurdles, with the expenditure secretary-headed Public Investment Board (PIB) recently turning down recommendation for their construction, citing multiple reasons, including cost. Earlier, the bid for the Singhpora-Vailoo tunnel was scrapped.
Besides the huge cost of around Rs 8,900 crore and that there being an existing road connecting the origin and destination in respect of each of the two packages, the board also recorded that these did not fall under strategic roads of the defence ministry, though officials from the National Highway and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) under the road transport ministry made such a claim in the March 22 meeting.
Last year, the home ministry had not given clearance to the foreign contractor, which had quoted the lowest amount for the Singhpora-Vailoo tunnel project, resulting in termination of the tendering process. Bids for the project were invited in 2023.
The PIB, which took up the projects proposed by NHIDCL, also recorded that the agency did not provide traffic details on the existing and proposed road between the origin and destination. Sources said the inter-ministerial panel, which appraises all public-funded projects before these are placed before the Cabinet for approval, also took note that there was no evidence of direct benefit out of the two projects.
The PIB also noted that there is a good quality alternative road.
Now, with the PIB turning them down, there is uncertainty of the projects taking off any time soon. Since the finance ministry directed the road transport ministry not to approve any fresh project under Bharatmala, all highway works costing beyond Rs 1,000 crore need to go to the Cabinet for approval after appraisal by the PIB and the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Appraisal Committee in case of fully public-funded and PPP projects, respectively.
“The recent development and observation of PIB has shown how there may be many cases where projects not deserving to be taken up might have been cleared under Bharatmala. If this project had been bid out, these facts wouldn’t have come out,” said a source.