Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 3 inaugurated the strategically important Atal Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh's Rohtang that will reduce the distance between Manali and Leh in the newly-minted union territory of Ladakh by 46 km and the travel time by four to five hours.
Speaking on the occasion, Modi said Atal Bihari Vajpayee laid the foundation of the approach road for this tunnel, but after his government left, the project was all but forgotten.
Experts say that the pace at which Atal Tunnel was being constructed after the Vajpayee-led NDA government were to continue, the tunnel would have been completed by 2040, he said. "Our govt increased the pace of construction from 300 meters per year to 1,400 meters per year and completed the project in 2020," Modi said.
The work on Atal Tunnel was accelerated after 2014 and in just six years the government completed the work of 26 years, he said. Just like the Atal Tunnel, similar treatment was meted out to several such projects.
"There was no political will. I can talk about dozens of projects that are important from the strategic point of view, but for years they were neglected," he said, hitting out at the previous Congress-led governments.
"Nothing more important to us than protecting country, but there was an era when defence interests were compromised," he said, in an apparent swipe at the Congress.
PM Modi said the inauguration of the Atal Tunnel not only fulfilled the dreams of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee but the decades-old wait of crores of people of Himachal Pradesh.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh accompanied Modi to the inauguration.
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) completed the construction of the tunnel within its estimated cost of construction, Singh said, who dedicated the engineering marvel to the soldiers guarding the borders and those living near border areas.
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The longest highway tunnel in the world, the 9.02km-long Atal Tunnel will connect Manali to Lahaul-Spiti Valley of Himachal all throughout the year. The valley that connects to Leh would earlier be cut off for about six months due to heavy snowfall.
The tunnel is built with ultra-modern specifications in the Pir Panjal range of Himalayas at an altitude of 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) from the Mean Sea Level (MSL).
The south portal of the tunnel is 25 km from Manali at an altitude of 3,060 metres, while the north portal is near Teling village in Lahaul Valley at an altitude of 3,071 metres.
It is a horseshoe-shaped, single-tube double-lane tunnel with a roadway of 8 metres and has an overhead clearance of 5.525 metres, officials said. The tunnel, built at a cost of about Rs 3,300 crore, is extremely significant from the point of view of the country's defence, they said.
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The BRO worked relentlessly to overcome major geological, terrain and weather challenges that included the most difficult stretch of the 587-metre Seri Nalah Fault Zone. The breakthrough from both ends was achieved on October 15, 2017.
A BRO official said there was a telephone facility at every 150 metre, a fire hydrant every 60 metre, emergency exits every 500 metre, a turning cavern every 2.2 km, air quality monitors every 1 km, broadcasting system and automatic incident detection system with CCTV cameras every 250 metre. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had decided to build the tunnel below the Rohtang Pass on June 3, 2000, and the foundation stone for the access road to the south portal was laid on May 26, 2002.
Vajpayee got the idea for constructing the tunnel on a suggestion from his friend Arjun Gopal of Tashi Dobhe village in Lahaul, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said.
The Modi government decided to name the Rohtang Tunnel as Atal Tunnel in December 2019 to honour the former prime minister who passed away in 2018.
(With inputs from PTI)
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