The National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) has floated fresh bids for the Rs 3,567.51-crore Singhpora-Vailoo twin-tube tunnel project on National Highway-244, with work expected to begin in the next financial year.
The tender was issued on September 10.
Bids can be submitted until October 26 and will be opened on October 27.
NHIDCL General Manager Raghu Nath Sharma said the re-tendering followed official communication approving the project from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
“We re-tendered the Singhpora-Vailoo tunnel soon after receiving the official communication to proceed,” Sharma told Greater Kashmir.
“The bidders will have to quote rates based on site visits and design parameters. We expect work on the project to begin in the next financial year,” he said.
The tunnel will bypass the snowbound Sinthan Top and provide an all-weather road link between south Kashmir and the Chenab Valley. It will also provide an alternative route to NH-44.
The Singhpora-Vailoo project forms part of the wider NH-244 corridor linking Anantnag with Kishtwar, Batote and Chenani. The corridor also includes the 4.5-km Sudhmahadev-Dranga tunnel, for which NHIDCL floated a separate tender a few weeks ago.
The Singhpora-Vailoo package covers 38.611 km and will be executed in Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode.
It comprises two unidirectional tunnel tubes – a 10.331-km left tube and a 10.363-km right tube – besides approach roads and associated structures.
The project will connect Chatroo in Kishtwar district with Vailoo in Anantnag district.
The eastern approach from Chhatroo to the tunnel portal will cover 17.088 km, while the western approach towards Vailoo will extend 11.160 km.
The eastern portal near Singhpora will be located at about 2,243 metres above sea level, while the western portal at Gadole will be at around 2,404 metres.
Each tunnel tube will have a nine-metre carriageway, footpaths and emergency facilities. The two tubes will be connected through 20 cross-passages, each 6.1 metres wide and 18.5 metres long, at intervals of about 500 metres to facilitate emergency evacuation.
As part of the tunnel’s standard safety and operational requirements, it will have a semi-transverse ventilation system, fire detection and firefighting systems, CCTV surveillance, emergency communication, traffic control, lighting, drainage and waterproofing.
Fire hydrants will be installed every 250 metres as part of the firefighting arrangements.
The package also includes 21 major and minor bridges, viaducts and viaduct-cum-bridge structures, with the longest viaduct measuring 1,345 metres.
The approach roads will be two-lane roads with paved shoulders, supported by more than 54 km of roadside and catch drains for surface-water management.
The stipulated construction period is 60 months, followed by 120 months of maintenance.
Land acquisition for the Singhpora-Vailoo approach roads has been completed on both the Kashmir and Jammu sides, with more than half of the compensation already disbursed. Land acquisition for the Sudhmahadev-Dranga project has also been completed, while compensation is being processed.
The Singhpora-Vailoo project was approved in 2017 and reaffirmed in 2021, but implementation was delayed. The previous tender was scrapped in 2024 after security clearance was denied to the lowest bidder, a joint venture between Transrail Lighting and Azerbaijan-based EVRASCON.
The fresh tender has revived hopes in the Chenab Valley and south Kashmir, where the project has been awaited for years.
“The Singhpora-Vailoo tunnel is a lifeline. We have been waiting for it for a decade, but every time our hopes were dashed. We hope work begins now without any further delay,” said Advocate Sheikh Nasir, president of the Kishtwar Bar Association.
For the 4.5-km Sudhmahadev-Dranga tunnel, social activist Ishtiyaq Ahmad Dev of Doda said the deteriorating condition of the existing road had made the project necessary for safer travel.
Once completed, the two tunnel projects are expected to strengthen the NH-244 corridor and provide a more reliable year-round road link between the Kashmir and Chenab Valley regions.
