Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 21: For generations, a short stretch of Jammu-Srinagar National Highway 44 between Ramban’s Digdol and Panthyal villages carried a grim reputation. Locals called it Khooni Nallah — a name that needed no explanation. Falling rocks, sudden landslides, and relentless rain made it one of the most unpredictable and dangerous road segments in Jammu & Kashmir. Stranded vehicles, fatal accidents and waiting periods stretching into days were not exceptions here — they were routine.
That routine is now being dismantled, one metre of tunnel at a time.
According to the official spokesperson of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the 4-Lane Digdol–Panthyal Twin Tube Tunnel project, part of the broader four-laning of the Ramban–Banihal section of NH-44, has crossed 87 percent physical completion and is rapidly approaching its final stages.
Backed by an investment of Rs 866.37 crore by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the project is set to permanently alter the geography of daily life for thousands of residents, commuters, traders and security personnel who depend on this corridor.
The Ramban–Banihal section is no ordinary stretch of highway. Nestled deep in the Himalayas, it forms the primary overland link between the Kashmir Valley and the rest of the country. Its steep gradients, volatile geology and extreme seasonal weather have long made it a bottleneck — one that disrupts not just travel, but livelihoods, supply chains and military logistics.
The twin tube design addresses this head-on. The northbound tunnel spans 2.6 km and 0.619 km, while the southbound tube stretches 3.08 km — routing vehicles safely through the mountain instead of along its exposed, landslide-prone face. What once meant hours of waiting on a crumbling roadside will soon mean minutes inside a secure, engineered passage.
Ratan, a Digdol resident who has lived alongside the highway his entire life, captures the shift simply: “Earlier, when rocks would fall or heavy rains hit, people were stuck for days on both sides. Now, we can reach The 4-Lane Digdol–Panthyal Twin Tube Tunnel project, part of the broader four-laning of the Ramban–Banihal section of NH-44, has crossed 87 percent physical completion and is rapidly approaching its final stages.
The impact reaches well beyond travel time. For Naresh, another Digdol local, the tunnel’s progress has already begun to reshape something as fundamental as his children’s school day.
“Accidents were almost daily. Traffic jams were constant. Even going to Ramban was a problem, and our children suffered the most,” he recalls. Long commutes meant children returning home exhausted, with little bandwidth left for studies. “By the time they got back, there was hardly any time left to focus on their books,” he says.
With the tunnel near completion, that calculus is changing. “Now, Ramban is about five minutes away. The children can get home earlier, rest properly and actually study. And in the years ahead, accidents will reduce and time will be saved for everyone.”
Constructing tunnels through the geologically complex Himalayan terrain demands precision and caution in equal measure. The project employs the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) — an internationally recognised approach that adapts to the surrounding rock’s behaviour rather than imposing rigid, pre-fixed structures. Excavation, which began simultaneously from multiple faces in 2022, has been carried out using a combination of heading and benching techniques to maintain structural stability throughout.
The benefits of the project extend well beyond civilian convenience. Faster, uninterrupted movement along this corridor will strengthen the logistics of the Army and other security agencies, enabling quicker deployment and response in a region of considerable strategic sensitivity. For goods transporters, it translates to lower operating costs and more predictable delivery timelines. For tourists, it opens the Kashmir Valley with fewer deterrents. For J&K’s residents, it is, simply, a safer road home.
Once fully operational, the Digdol–Panthyal Twin Tube Tunnels will stand as a concrete shift in what it means to travel through one of India’s most demanding mountain highways — not a journey measured in uncertainty, but one measured in minutes. |
