Atal Tunnel – Interesting Facts
Here are 10 interesting things that you should know about the Atal Tunnel:
- At an estimated cost of ₹3,500 crore, the 9-km Atal Tunnel has been constructed.
- The Atal Tunnel in Lahaul Spiti’s Rohtang reduces the distance between Manali and Leh by 46 km, cutting travel time by about seven hours.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi is anticipated to inaugurate the tunnel by the end of September this year, as stated by Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.
- Once operational, the tunnel will offer year-round connectivity to remote border areas of Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, which are typically cut off from the rest of the country for about six months during winters.
- The Atal Tunnel holds strategic importance and is expected to boost tourism in Lahaul-Spiti, creating employment opportunities.
- The tunnel boasts several safety features, including telephone facilities every 150 meters, fire hydrants every 60 meters, emergency exits every 500 meters, turning caverns every 2.2 km, air quality monitoring every one km, and an automatic incident detection system with CCTV cameras every 250 meters.
- In the long run, the tunnel is projected to save significant amounts in transport costs.
- The construction of the tunnel involved the use of 14,508 metric tonnes of steel, 2,37,596 metric tonnes of cement, and the excavation of 14 lakh cubic meters of soil and rocks. The drill and blast technique for excavation and the New Austrian Tunnelling method for construction were employed.
- In December of the previous year, the Union Government named the tunnel under the Rohtang Pass after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his 95th birth anniversary.
- The decision to construct the strategic tunnel below the Rohtang Pass was made on June 3, 2000, during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure as Prime Minister.
Atal Tunnel: Significance, Timeline and Facts
Atal Tunnel is inaugurated in Himachal Pradesh. Atal Tunnel stands as the world’s longest highway tunnel. It presents a significant reduction of 46 kilometers in the distance between Manali and Leh. It is named in honor of the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
In this article, we will take a look at the overview of Atal Tunnel, a recent record that it created, its history, and much more.