Concession agreement for Z-Morh tunnel construction

A Concession Agreement has been recently signed for completing the 6.5-km-long Z-Morh tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir in the presence of Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs Nitin Gadkari. MoS Road Transport & Highways General (Retd) Dr VK Singh; Secretary Road Transport & Highways Sanjiv Ranjan; and other senior officers from the Ministry and NHIDCL were present on the occasion.

The project includes construction, operation and maintenance of the tunnel with approaches on NH-1 at Srinagar-Sonmarg-Gumri Road from 61 km to 89.30 km on the Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) Annuity basis.

The two-lane bi-directional tunnel with parallel escape tunnel will be completed in 3.5 years at a cost of Rs 23.7876 billion. The concessionaire has been awarded DLP period or operation & maintenance period of 15 years from the completion date. The earlier contract is being foreclosed in terms of Ministry ‘Guidelines Principles for Resolution of Stuck National Highway Projects’ dated March 9, 2019.

Bids for the project were re-invited on June 24, 2019 with a TPC of Rs 23.7876 billion on BOT (Annuity) basis. Four bids were received, and were opened on August 29, 2019. After receiving necessary administrative approval and financial sanction, the project award was sanctioned by the Ministry on December 17, 2019. The LoA for the project was subsequently issued on December 19, 2019 to APCO Infrastructure.