AP PHOTOS: India builds strategic tunnel project in Kashmir

SONAMARG, India -- High in a rocky Himalayan mountain range in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, hundreds of people are working on an ambitious project to drill tunnels and construct bridges to connect the Kashmir Valley with Ladakh, a cold-desert region isolated half the year because of massive snowfall.

Strategically important Ladakh shares de facto borders with Pakistan and China and currently depends on air supplies for about six months of the year.

Officials say a 6.5-kilometer (4-mile) tunnel, the first of four, is already complete and will make the resort town of Sonamarg accessible during the winter months for the first time. Sonamarg marks the end of conifer-clad mountains before Ladakh begins across the rocky Zojila mountain pass.

The $932 million project’s last tunnel, about 14 kilometers (9 miles) long, will bypass the challenging Zojila pass and connect Sonamarg with Ladakh. Officials say it will be India’s longest and highest tunnel at 11,500 feet (3,485 meters).