India's Modi marks the opening of a strategic tunnel in disputed Kashmir

JAMMU, India -- India’s prime minister marked Monday the opening of a tunnel in the northeast of disputed Kashmir that will grant all-year accessibility to a town that is isolated by heavy snow each winter.

The $932 million project includes a second tunnel and a series of bridges and high mountain roads that will link Kashmir with Ladakh, a cold desert region nestled between India, Pakistan and China that has faced territorial disputes for decades.

Amid high security, Narendra Modi visited the resort town of Sonamarg where he inaugurated the 6.5-kilometer (4-mile) tunnel. The town denotes the end of the conifer-clad mountains of the Kashmir Valley before Ladakh begins across the rocky Zojila mountain pass. The tunnel, named Z-Morh, will now grant it accessibility for the first time all year round.

The second tunnel, about 14 kilometers (9 miles) long, will bypass the challenging Zojila pass and connect Sonamarg with Ladakh and is expected to be completed in 2026.

Sonamarg and Ladakh have been plagued with severe snowfalls that close the mountain passes due to massive snowfalls, forcing them to remain cut off from neighboring towns for nearly six months every year.

Authorities on Monday deployed police and soldiers in the area and established multiple checkpoints at key intersections as an enhanced security measure for the prime minister’s visit. Troops also stationed sharpshooters at several points and carried out drone surveillance to ensure constant vigilance.

Modi later at a public meeting, attended by hundreds of people, said the ambitious project would improve road connectivity and boost tourism in the region. The meeting also was attended by some of Modi's Cabinet ministers and Kashmir's chief minister Omar Abdullah.

Experts say the tunnel project is important to the military, which will gain significantly improved capabilities to operate in Ladakh while also providing civilians with freedom of movement year-round between the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh.

In October, gunmen fatally shot at least seven people working on the tunnel project and injured at least five others. Police blamed insurgents fighting for decades against Indian rule in the region.

In 2019, New Delhi stripped Kashmir’s special status as a semi-autonomous region with a separate constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs. The federal government also downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, the first time in the history of India that a region’s statehood was downgraded to a federally administered territory.

India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.