Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 2: Senior Pradesh Congress leaders have claimed that Chenani-Nashri Tunnel has come up with the vision and initiative of UPA Government led by Dr Manmohan Singh.
In a joint statement here today, senior Congress leaders Ashok Sharma (Ex- MLA), Mohinder Kumar Bhardwaj, Ashok Dubey and Ashwani Puri said that inauguration of 9.28 km long Chenani-Nashri tunnel by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a momentous occasion in the contemporary history of Jammu and Kashmir and is a clear sign of the continuous endeavour of our visionary policy-planners over the years to bring hearts and minds of people of J&K together.
They said state-of-the-art tunnel which is both an engineering and scientific marvel is a giant leap forward in making Jammu-Srinagar road travel possible in barely six hours and also making the highway an all-weather road which in the past had been subjected to vagaries of weather causing serious strain on public mind as well the defence mechanism of the country J&K being a sensitive border State.
The entire project of four-lanning of the highway was conceived with a view to remove all these obstacles of which Chenani-Nashri tunnel is a significant part. The work on this tunnel had started on May 23, 2011 but thinking and planning had started earlier than that.
The project speaks volumes of the vision of the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and also the then Chief Minister of the State Ghulam Nabi Azad, to usher the State into a new era of development. This highway is a lifeline for the people of J&K and disruptions in the past had catastrophic effect on them.
The fact that the tunnel has been formally commissioned now, it is imperative that we all including the governments of the day, both at the Centre and the state levels, should recognize the services of the previous Congress-led dispensations.
“Inauguration of this tunnel is a public testimony to the fact that Congress and its led governments whether in New Delhi or in various states steadfastly stand for progress and prosperity of our great nation and in particular public welfare. We congratulate Dr Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Ghulam Nabi Azad for making this happen in our life time,” PCC leaders maintained.
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