New Dh1.4bn tunnel opens in India-controlled Kashmir to ease travel

Separatist leaders fighting for India-controlled Kashmir’s independence from New Delhi or its merger with neighbouring Pakistan shut businesses and public transport in the region on Sunday and said the construction of tunnels and roads would not succeed in appeasing them.

Indian paramilitary soldiers patrol during a shutdown called by separatist leaders in Srinagar, the summer capital of India-controlled Kashmir, on April 2, 2017. Farooq Khan / EPA

SRINAGAR // Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Sunday opened an 11 kilometre tunnel through Himalayan terrain to help ease travel on a motorway linking the troubled Kashmir Valley with the rest of India.

Mr Modi drove in an open jeep through the all-weather route, which is expected to help trade and tourism in the region. The motorway is sometimes blocked for hours and even days due to heavy snow, monsoon rains and landslides.

It took engineers six years to build the tunnel at a cost of 25 billion rupees (Dh1.4bn).

But separatist leaders fighting for the region’s independence from India or its merger with neighbouring Pakistan shut businesses and public transport in the region on Sunday and said the construction of tunnels and roads would not succeed in appeasing them.

Kashmir is a “political issue and not a problem related to governance, economic packages, incentives or law and order”, they said in a joint statement issued on Friday.

They added that Mr Modi was visiting the state at a time when the situation was “extremely gloomy”.

The prime minister addressed a rally of thousands of people in the town of Udhampur and urged the youth of Kashmir to choose between “terrorism and tourism”.

He said decades of insurgency had caused bloodshed and hit tourism, a mainstay of the region. The India-controlled part of Kashmir is popular with tourists for its lakes, mountains, ski slopes, gardens and religious sites.

Mr Modi promised to boost the region’s tourism infrastructure, saying the new tunnel would ensure that tourists were not stranded because of bad weather.

Jitendra Singh, a minister in Mr Modi’s government from the region, said the tunnel would reduce travel time, “boost trade and increase revenue in the state”.

Most people in India-controlled Kashmir favour the region’s independence or a merger with Pakistan, which also administers a part of Kashmir across a heavily militarised de facto border through the mountains. Since 1989, at least 70,000 people have been killed in an armed uprising and ensuing Indian military crackdown.

The rebel groups have largely been suppressed by Indian troops in recent years, and resistance is now principally expressed through street protests.

* Associated Press