World’s longest high-altitude tunnel to open in India

Posted on 29 September 2020 By Anita Froneman

The Atal Rohtang Pass highway tunnel in India will open on October 3 after 10 years of hard work. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate this engineering marvel.

The 8.8-km-long horseshoe-shaped single-tube two-lane tunnel is the world’s longest motorable tunnel at over 3,000 metres above sea level, according to the India Times.

Also called the Atal Tunnel, it will shorten the 474km distance between the cities of Manali and Leh by 46km.

The tunnel took remarkably long to complete by modern standards and faced numerous challenges. It was originally scheduled to be completed in 2015, but water infiltration, a ban on rock mining and delays in the allotment of land needed for quarrying all put a damper on the construction, according to the Hindustan Times.

‘When the lockdown was imposed, labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh working on the tunnel migrated, causing a major labour problem. Later, we arranged labour from different parts of the state,’ said chief engineer Rohtang Tunnel project KP Purushothaman.

More than 700 men are working in shifts to complete the tunnel.

Image credit: Twitter




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