Updated: October 3, 2020 12:57:08 pm
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the Atal Tunnel in Rohtang on Saturday. (Source: Twitter / BJP4India)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday opened the Atal Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh’s Rohtang, which connects the Solang Valley near Manali with Sissu in Lahaul and Spiti district. The Atal Tunnel is the longest road tunnel in the world (9.02 km), built at an altitude of 3,000 meters. The Prime Minister was accompanied by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Defense Chief of Staff General Bipin Rawat, and Army Chief General MM Naravane.
The tunnel runs through a mountain west of Rohtang La and will now shorten the distance between the two points by about 46 km. What was almost 4 hours will now take about 15 minutes. The double-lane tunnel can handle around 3,000 cars and 1,500 trucks per day, with a maximum speed of 80 km per hour.
Launching the tunnel, Prime Minister Modi said: “The Atal tunnel will reinvigorate India’s border infrastructure. It is an example of world-class border connectivity. There have been demands to improve border infrastructure, but for a long time such projects either failed to get out of the planning stage or stalled midway. Connectivity has a direct connection with development. Connectivity in border areas is directly related to security issues ”.
“Atal Ji laid the first stone of the access road of this tunnel in 2002. Until 2013-2014, only 1,300 meters of this tunnel were advanced. After 2014, the project progressed at an unprecedented rate. In just six years, we completed the 26-year job. “
Read also | Leh at the end of the tunnel
The Prime Minister also said: “Emphasis has been placed on the development of border infrastructure. Its benefits are spreading to both ordinary people and the personnel of our armed forces. There is nothing more important to us than protecting the country. But the country has also seen that period in which the country’s defense interests were compromised. “
“Many other major projects were handled in the same way as the Atal tunnel. The strategically important Daulat Beg Oldi airstrip in Ladakh was closed for 40 to 45 years. I don’t want to go into details about what was the impotence and the pressure behind it, “he added.
The Prime Minister also stopped a bus carrying 15 passengers from the north portal of the Atal tunnel in Sissu, Lahaul Valley to the south portal of the tunnel.
प्रधानमंत्री श्री @Narendra Modi ने अटल टनल, रोहतांग को देश को समर्पित किया। #AtalTunnel pic.twitter.com/pbMX6Oyinc
– BJP (@ BJP4India) October 3, 2020
Rajnath Singh, who arrived at the site on Friday to review preparations, said: “The Border Roads Organization completed construction of the Atal Tunnel within its estimated construction cost. This tunnel is dedicated to the soldiers who protect our borders and those who live near the border areas. “
On Friday, he had tweeted: “I visited the ‘Atal Tunnel, Rohtang’ to review the preparations for the opening ceremony to be held tomorrow. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will dedicate the tunnel to the nation. This 9.02 km long ‘engineering marvel’ will connect Manali to the Lahaul-Spiti Valley year-round. “
The tunnel is named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The construction, which used 15,000 tonnes of steel, took almost a decade and cost around 3,200 million rupees. It was scheduled to be completed in May 2020, but was delayed a few months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The tunnel also has a strategic advantage. While it will be a boon to the residents of Lahaul and the Spiti Valley, who remain cut off from the rest of the country in winters for nearly six months due to heavy snowfall, the tunnel will provide nearly all-weather connectivity to troops stationed in Ladakh. .
The unique characteristics of this tunnel begin quite a distance from it on the access roads to the north and south portals. The bridges on the rivers at the access to the tunnel from both portals have also been completed and are now being painted. Snow galleries have also been built on the tunnel access road from the Manali side, and this will ensure all-weather connectivity.
Read | ‘It was a matter of prioritizing … Furthermore, the government’s approach is to integrate all remote areas’: DG BRO in the Atal Tunnel
Other features include an emergency escape tunnel under the main tunnel. This would provide an emergency exit in the event of any adverse incident that could render the main tunnel unusable. The tunnel also has a telephone every 150 meters, a fire hydrant every 60 meters, an emergency exit every 500 meters, a turning cavern every 2.2 km, air quality monitoring every kilometer, a broadcasting system and an automatic detection system. of incidents with CCTV cameras every 250 meters.
Meanwhile, Lahaul residents hope its opening will give Lahaul tourism and winter sports a new boost. According to data from the state tourism department, the Lahaul-Spiti district has the lowest influx of tourists among the state’s 12 districts. In 2018, 1.33 lakh of tourists visited the district, while more than 30 lakh did so in neighboring Kullu.
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