Prime Minister Narendra Modi will open the Atal Tunnel in Rohtang today, which is the highest tunnel in the world and is strategically important. The historic decision to build a strategic tunnel under the Rohtang Pass was made on June 3, 2000 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister. The first stone of the access road to the southern portal of the tunnel was laid on May 26, 2002.
The Union Cabinet decided in 2019 to name the Rohtang Tunnel the Atal Tunnel to honor the contribution made by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Atal Tunnel: some facts about this engineering marvel
one) The 9.02 km long tunnel will connect Manali with the Lahaul-Spiti Valley throughout the year. Previously, the road was affected for about six months each year due to snowfall. The tunnel is built to ultra-modern specifications in the Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas at an altitude of 3000 meters (10,000 feet) from mean sea level (MSL).
2) Reduce the road distance by 46 km between Manali and Leh and the time between four and five hours. The hard work done by the Border Roads Organization over the past 10 years is reaching the final stage.
3) The South Portal (SP) of the Atal Tunnel is located at a distance of 25 km from Manali at an altitude of 3060 meters, while the North Portal (NP) of the tunnel is located near Teling village, Sissu, in the Lahaul Valley at an altitude of 3,071 meters.
4) It is a tunnel in the shape of a horseshoe, with a single tube and with two lanes, with a road of 8 meters. It has a free height of 5,525 meters. In addition, it is 10.5 meters wide and has a 3.6 x 2.25 meter fireproof emergency exit tunnel integrated into the main tunnel itself. There are 18 exit tunnels where after every 500 meters there is an opening in case of emergency. If a fire incident occurs, the first thing to do is how to rescue the trapped people. For that there is an entrance every 500 meters.
5) The Atal tunnel has been designed for a traffic density of 3000 cars per day and 1500 trucks per day with a maximum speed of 80 km / h. It has the latest generation electromechanical system that includes a semi-transversal ventilation system.
5) The tunnel has extensive built-in security features, including telephone connections every 150 meters for emergency communication, fire hydrant mechanisms every 60 meters, automatic incident detection system with CCTV cameras every 250 meters, monitoring of the air quality at every kilometer, evacuation lighting / exit signs and broadcasting system throughout the tunnel, among others.
6) Officials said the Border Roads Organization (BRO) worked tirelessly to overcome major geological, terrain and climate challenges that included the most difficult stretch of the 587-meter Seri Nalah fault zone. The advance of both extremes was achieved on October 15, 2017.
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