New Delhi, May 5: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Monday announced that by April next year, India will have a direct road connection from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. The announcement was made in Hyderabad while unveiling infrastructure projects worth over ₹5,000 crore.
“We talk about Kashmir to Kanyakumari. By April next year, we will realise this dream on the ground,” Gadkari said. “I will urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to drive from Rohtang in Himachal Pradesh to Kanyakumari. By then, this national highway corridor will be ready.”
The proposed corridor is part of an expansive national highway network aiming to physically link the country’s northernmost and southernmost regions. According to Gadkari, the route begins at Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh and stretches south through a series of key highway and tunnel projects.
Among the notable projects, the Atal Tunnel has already cut travel time to Rohtang to eight minutes. Further north, eight new tunnels are under construction towards Ladakh’s Leh. Work on Asia’s longest Zojila tunnel (12 km), located below Kargil, is reportedly 75 percent complete. The Z-Morh Tunnel near Srinagar has already been inaugurated.
Between Srinagar and Jammu, 36 tunnels are part of a road modernisation drive, with 23 now complete. Further down the route, the under-construction Katra-Amritsar-Delhi highway connects to the Delhi-Mumbai expressway, from where commuters will have access to Gujarat’s Surat.
“To reach the south, we are building a new express highway from Surat to Nasik, Ahmadnagar, Solapur, Kurnool, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi, Trivandrum, and Kanyakumari,” said Gadkari.
He noted that the Surat–Solapur–Kurnool–Chennai highway includes 1,100 km of roadway in Telangana, with 53 percent of work already completed.
