#upsc rohtangpass ataltunnel rohtangtunnel

[tsugeethnow]

Atal Tunnel, World’s longest highway tunnel.

Atal Tunnel also known as Rohtang Tunnel is a highway tunnel built under the Rohtang pass in the eastern Pir Panjal range of Himalayas on the Leh-Manali highway in Himachal Pradesh. It is the World’s longest highway tunnel at about 9.02 kms long at an elevation of 3100 meters (10171 ft) connecting Solang valley in Manali and Sissu in Lahaul and Spiti District of Himachal Pradesh.

Rohtang Pass is at an elevation of 3978ft (13051 ft).

The tunnel was inaugurated by the Prime Minister,Narendra Modi on October 3, 2020, in the presence of Rajnath Singh (Minister of Defence), Jai Ram Thakur (CM of Himachal Pradesh), and Anurag Thakur (Minister of State for Finance). 

The tunnel will provide all weather connectivity to the remote areas of Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. The tunnel reduces overall time and distance between Manali and Keylong on the way to Leh-Ladakh. 

Previously the route went through Gramphu, which under good conditions took 5 to 6 hours to cover 116 Kms. With the launch of this tunnel the distance got decreased to 71 kms which shall be covered in 3-4hrs less time. Atal tunnel has bypassed most of the sites which were prone to road blockades, avalanches and traffic snarls.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi renamed the tunnel as the Atal Tunnel, in honour of Shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on 25 December 2019, Vajpayee's birthday.

In 1960, Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru suggested a rope way to Rohtang pass with local tribes. Then after 39 years, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister, he visited Lahaul in 2000 upon request by the locals and declared that Rohtang Tunnel would be constructed after conducting a feasibility study by RITES. Later it was undertaken by Border Road Organisation.

It is a horseshoe-shaped, single tube double lane tunnel with a roadway of 8 metres and an overhead clearance of 5.525 metres. It has been designed for a traffic density of 3,000 cars and 1,500 trucks per day with a maximum speed of 80 km/hr.  The tunnel is 10.5-metre wide and a 3.6x2.25 metre fireproof emergency egress tunnel has been built into the main tunnel itself. 

The tunnel is equipped with various security features such as CCTV cameras, telephone connections at every 150 metres for any emergency, fire hydrant mechanism at every 60 metres and auto incident detection system.

The overall project cost was  ₹3200 Crores.