Hyderabad company leads race for Zojila Tunnel project

A Hyderabad-based infrastructure firm is likely to be awarded the contract for the construction of the long-pending Zojila Tunnel in the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, after the Centre shortlisted three firms for the project, officials familiar with the matter said.

The government’s nodal agency for the strategic project, National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd, had issued a tender in June and opened the bids on July 24.

The NHIDCL shortlisted three firms -- L&T Construction, MEIL and railways’ PSU Ircon International Limited (IRCON) -- on Tuesday. Hindustan Times has reviewed a copy of the notification.

“Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) has emerged as the lowest bidder and is likely to be awarded but no official award letter has been issued yet,” a senior official, said requesting anonymity. The estimated cost of the project is ₹4429.83 crore.

The project, which will be implemented in two sections, involves the construction of a connecting road from Z-Morh Tunnel to Zojila Tunnel and a 14.150 km long bi-directional tunnel across Zojila Pass on the Sonamarg-Kargil section of NH-01 on Engineering, Procurement, Construction mode.

The first section of the project is expected to be completed in 2.5 years and the second part 6.5 years.

The long-pending project has gone through many design changes. In its previous tender a ‘parallel escape (egress) tunnel’ was also included earlier but has been done away with to reduce the cost of the project, officials said. The project got further delayed after it was stranded by IL&FS Transportation Network amid financial crisis.

“MEIL has become an L-1 in the most prestigious Zoji-la pass tunnel in Jammu Kashmir-Ladakh in Himalayan region. National Highways and Industrial Development Corporation (NHIDCL) has opened the bids on Friday, and MEIL topped the list by quoting less than other companies. MEIL topped as L-1 by quoting for a less amount than the other two companies. On 30th July, three companies submitted the bids to NHIDCL, and the finance bids opened on 21st August. The project to be constructed in 2 divisions in two sections of about 33 kilometres,” MEIL said in a statement on Friday.

“The road from Srinagar to Leh in Ladakh is not suitable for vehicular traffic throughout the year. The Srinagar-Ladakh highway is completely closed for six months, especially during the winter season. Even the military vehicles are unable to move under these conditions. Travelling long distances on alternate routes has become a costly affair and a waste of time. Under these circumstances, the road tunnel was proposed between Sonamarg to Leh and Ladakh via Kargil long back,” it added.

The tunnel, likely to be Asia’s longest 14.2 km long two-lane tunnel road, is expected to reduce travel time between Srinagar and Leh to just 15 minutes, from the current from three and a half hours