Completion of the 9 km bi-directional Chenani-Nashri tunnel in the Jammu & Kashmir (India) will be delayed by two months until July, 2016.

IL&FS (Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services), on behalf of the NHAI (National Highways Authority of India), has engaged five agencies for completion of the project. The job was abandoned by Leighton India in November, 2014 following differences with the IL&FS over billing process.

IL&FS has allotted to BCC (Beigh Construction Company) the final 1.5 km of excavation work on the Nashri side of the main tunnel. Two other contractors will complete the lining, and a further two will complete the outer works at each end of the tunnel.

Located at an elevation of 1.2 km, Chenani-Nashri will be India’s longest road tunnel connecting Udhampur District to Ramban District on the NH-1A Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. Built using NATM techniques, it will replace a 41 km-long road through steep, hilly and difficult terrain with an all-weather road of just 10.9 km. The main 9 km tunnel is connected to a parallel escape tunnel via 29 cross-passages (pedestrian passages every 300 m and vehicular crossings every 1.2 km). Visit http://www.nhai.org/, http://www.itnlindia.com/default.aspx and http://bccgroup.in/. 24/15.