The Atal Rohtang Tunnel: 10 years in the making of the World’s longest highway tunnel

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The Atal Rohtang Tunnel is a tunnel that’s named after former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This tunnel is built under the Rohtang Pass in the eastern Pir Panjal Range of the Himalayas on the Leh-Manali Highway. That is why this tunnel is also being called the ‘leh manali tunnel’. It is also expected to keep the Leh-Manali highway open during winters.

The Atal Rohtang Tunnel is about 9.2 km in length which makes it one of the longest road tunnels in India. This tunnel, with an elevation of 3100 meters, is set to reduce the distance between Manali and Leh by almost 46 km.

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A peek at the facts about atal tunnel – All facts about atal rohtang tunnel

• In December 2019, the union government named this strategic tunnel in Himachal Pradesh after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to pay a tribute to him on his 95th birth anniversary.
• Although the decision to construct the strategic tunnel below the Rohtang Pass was taken on June 3, 2000, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister of India, the tunnel was conceived by the Indira Gandhi government in 1983.
• The Atal Tunnel is constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 3500-4000 crores.
• Like we mentioned above, by reducing the distance between Leh and Manali by 46 km, the tunnel will bring down the driving time by around 4 hours.
• The BRO built this tunnel in the shape of a horseshoe.
• The foundation stone of the Atal Tunnel was laid on 28 June 2010 and its completion took 10 years.
• It is the world’s longest tunnel above an altitude of 3,000 metres.
• It is a 10.5-metre wide single tube bi-lane tunnel with a fireproof emergency egress tunnel built into the main tunnel itself.

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All about the Atal Rohtang Tunnel – The leh manali tunnel

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the tunnel on 3rd October 2020.
• With the help of this tunnel, connectivity to the remote border areas of Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh will easily be possible, regardless of the weather conditions.
• The opening of the Atal Tunnel will bring a boost in tourism activities in the Lahaul-Spiti region and will also simultaneously create more employment opportunities for locals in the area.
• The tunnel also provides a telephone facility on every 150 meters, a fire hydrant on every 60 meters, an emergency exit on every 500 meters, a turning cavern on every 2.2 km, an air quality monitoring on every 1 km, a broadcasting system, and an automatic incident detection system with CCTV cameras on every 250 meters.
• The construction of this tunnel consumed 14,508 metric tonnes of steel, 2,37,596 metric tonnes of cement, and 14 lakh cubic meters of soil and rocks.
• This tunnel is unique in its own way as it is India’s first tunnel to have an escape tunnel within the main tunnel due to the topography. It is also the first tunnel to deploy the Rowa flyer technology, which allows engineers to work at inverted levels.

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