Kashmit governor for national highway status for Mughal road

Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra on Sunday urged the central government to accord national highway status on the historic Mughal Road connecting the Kashmir Valley with the Jammu region, an official statement said.

In a letter to union Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari Minister, Vohra also sought approval for the construction of an eight-km Chattapani-Zaznar tunnel.

"The declaration of the Mughal Road as a national highway and tunnel's construction will provide a reliable all-weather alternative link of Jammu with Srinagar via the Rajouri-Shopian axis," he said in the letter, according to the statement.

The governor cited several avalanche-prone locations near Pir-Ki-Gali on the road's route and that a considerable portion of it remained snow-bound during winter, rendering it inoperative from late November to April-end.

The union ministry has already declared the Jammu-Akhnoor-Poonch and the Srinagar-Shopian-Qazigund roads as new national highways.

The central government has assisted the state under the Prime Minister's Reconstruction Plan in constructing 84.10-km Mughal Road stretch.

This road has provided connectivity across the Pir Panjal range, connecting Shopian in Kashmir division with Bafliaz in Jammu division.

From the Poonch side, the construction has resulted in reducing the distance to Srinagar by over 300 km and also contributed to easing traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.