Banihal Qazigund Road Tunnel


Banihal Qazigund Road Tunnel is an 8.5 km road tunnel at elevation of 1,790 m in the Pir Panjal range in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir connecting Banihal and Qazigund. It is a double tube tunnel consisting of two parallel tunnels - one for each direction of travel. Each tunnel is 7 m wide and has two lanes of road. The two tunnels are interconnected by a passage every 500 m for maintenance and emergency evacuation. The tunnel will have forced ventilation for extracting smoke and stale air and infusing fresh air. It will have state of the art monitoring and control systems for security. It is expected that vehicles will have to pay a toll to use the tunnel.

Status of construction

Construction of this tunnel started in 2011 along with the project to widen NH 44 to four lanes. The existing road tunnel below the Banihal pass, has been a bottleneck on the road due to its elevation of and limited traffic capacity. The new tunnel's average elevation at 1,790 m is 400 m lower than the existing Jawahar tunnel's elevation, which would make it less prone to avalanches. When completed, the tunnel would reduce the road distance between Banihal and Qazigund by 16 km.
The Southern portal of the tunnel is at and the Northern portal of the tunnel is at.