Himalaya Tunnel plan grinds to a halt

Zojila pass

One of Asia’s longest tunnel 14km long,  the $1bn Zojila tunnel, linking the fertile Kashmir Valley with the deserts of high-altitude Ladakh, providing a vital supply corridor for India’s armed forces, and economic lifeline to locals cut off by snow in the winter and a boom to tourists visiting the region’s mountain peaks.

`The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi who travelled to the remote Himalayan city of Leh to inaugurate the ambitious project calling it a “ technological miracle”.

Eighteen months later the state project has ground to a halt as the contractor, infrastructure leasing and financial services defaulted in September 2018, accused of wrongdoing and leaving behind about $13bn debt.

Bidding for a new contractor to complete the two-way tunnel was halted this year, as Modi revoked Jammu and Kashmir state’s constitutional autonomy. The delay was expected to add costs with more approvals required before further bidding could be reopened.

The Zojila Tunnel is a symbol of how the default of IL &FS a hulking infrastructure group with interest in everything from construction to development to financing hs complicated the government’s push to build vital projects and its roads, ports and power plants.

Mr. Modi has vowed to spend  £1bn (Rs100tn) over the next five years building world-class transport and logistics networks to create millions of jobs and attract foreign companies to propel India’s economic growth.

In the past poor infrastructure has long been among businesses’ main complaints. A wave of bad investments in roads and power plants over the last decade had left the banks reluctant to finance longterm projects.

Since Mr. Modi came to power in 2014, the total length of Indian Highways has increased by about 50 per cent  130, 000km. In 2017, his government opened the Chenani Nashri tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir and has also drawn international pension and sovereign wealth funds to invest in the sector.

Tunnel workers say they had not been paid for months ” they just deserted us there”.