Jammu, July: Even though the commuting on Jammu-Srinagar national highway (NH-44) has improved a lot with completion of work on several tunnels and four-lane portions but people will have to wait till end of the year 2026 when the work on the highway will be completed.
With every passing day the road connectivity is being improved and travel time between the two capital cities have been reduced to six hours.
According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the 300-km-long NH-44 is the lifeline of Jammu and Kashmir where everyday thousands of vehicles commute between Srinagar and Jammu and vice-versa. Besides being used by locals of Jammu and Kashmir the NH-44 is being used by security convoys, tourists, pilgrims and truckers carrying goods thus making it one of the busiest roads in the country. The four-lane road is being built at a cost of Rs 16,000 crore and out of this four-laning of 210 km route has been completed, including 10 tunnels of 21.5 km and several crucial bridges and one Ramban Viaduct.
Officials told KNO that there are still five to six major parts where the work is undergoing and will take some more time to get completed. These areas include Banihal town bypass stretch, Ramsu to Khari-link road stretch and beyond, Khooni Nallah to Digdol tunnel, Digdol to Makarkoot tunnel and one stretch near Ramban town, which are taking some more time. One portion near Dalwas is also under construction and a bridge is being constructed there to make it suitable for traffic.
Talking to KNO, Project Director National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) Parshutam Kumar said that by the end of 2026 the work on the NH-44 is expected to be completed. “The work on one of the two important tunnels is expected to be completed by June 2025 whereas work on another tunnel will take some more time and is expected to be completed by December 2026,” Kumar said.
The work on these two tunnels was started late after four-laning on an existing road couldn’t become feasible due to frequent landslides and damage to machinery. The work was shunned after completing a few stretches but on the advice of experts the two tunnels were proposed to bypass stretches from Khooni Nallah upto Makarkoot.
