Drass, June 11 -- The Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has announced a slew of upcoming road infrastructural projects and upgrades of the existing highways and high speed corridors in J&K and Ladakh with the promise that people in J&K will be able to complete travel on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in just 3 hours from next year. Gadkari, who was in Ladakh on Tuesday for the breakthrough of Zojila tunnel, said that highway development works and high speed corridors worth Rs.2 lakh crore are underway in J&K and road and tunnel projects worth about Rs.18,000 crore are under implementation between Kargil and Leh. "For J&K, we are doing works amounting to Rs.2 lakh crore of which 60,000 crore is for high speed corridor," he said. Gadkari said that four major high-speed corridors are under development to strengthen connectivity across Jammu & Kashmir. He also shared that the Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar fourlaning, a lifeline highway,with works of Rs.16,000 crore- 250km- has been majorly completed. "95% of work is complete. Rest work will be completed by December 2027," he said. He said that the work also includes 25 tunnels of which 20 have been completed. "In the beginning we thought that roads would suffice but the situation here caused a lot of difficulties like landslides. Thenwe took a policy decision of constructing tunnels. We are constructing 25 tunnels on this thoroughway, of which 20 are done and work is going on other five. There will be a reduction of 70 km in the distance," hesaid. He said that the time taken on the highway has already reduced from 9 hours to 4 hours. "And after the completion of these tunnels, Srinagar to Jammu travel will take only 3 hours- this is my dream and I promise you that by December end and into the next year this dream will come to fruition," he said. The Jammu-Chenani-Anantnag corridor will improve connectivity between the Chenab Valley districts and Kashmir Valley, while the Srinagar-Baramulla-Uri corridor will strengthen connectivity in north Kashmir and facilitate smoother movement of people and goods. The Jammu-Akhnoor-Poonch corridor is also progressing rapidly and is expected to improve connectivity in border districts while providing substantial travel-time savings. The minister announced several upcoming projects of strategic importance, including the Katra-Srinagar high-speed corridor, the Rafiabad-Kupwara-Chowkibal-Tangdhar road project and the Srinagar-Sonamarg-Gumri corridor. "(A part of) Srinagar-Sonamarg-Gumri two-lane pro-shoulder to be four-lane at Rs.1,500 crore- I am also announcing this. DPR will be completed by July. People going to Sonamarg and Ladakh will benefit. The travel will be reduced from 2.5 hours to 45 minutes. I am happy that Kashmir tourism will benefit a lot by these roads," he said....