India Opens Longest Road Tunnel, Which Cost Half a Billion Dollars to Construct

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate a strategically important tunnel to the country’s armed forces on Sunday. The tunnel will ensure all-weather passage on a route that often sees heavy traffic jams and disruptions due to landslides, snow, sharp curves, breakdown of vehicles and accidents.

New Delhi (Sputnik) – The tunnel will allow faster movement of armed forces from the mainland to Srinagar as it will shorten the driving time between Jammu and Srinagar by two hours. Said to be the country’s longest highway tunnel, the Chenani-Nashri tunnel in Jammu & Kashmir is the India's first and the world's sixth tunnel which is based on transverse ventilation system due to which passengers will get to breathe fresh air in the tunnel.

"The tunnel has an efficient, transverse ventilation system. There are inlets bringing fresh air at 8-meter intervals and outlet for exhaust every 100 meters.  There is also a fully-integrated control system with ventilation, communication, power supply, incident detection, SOS call box and fire-fighting,” said a document of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.

Here's a video of landmark
Chenani-Nashri Tunnel, the longest highway tunnel in India, to be inaugurated soon: https://t.co/Fbhc6dLVCS

— Frank Noronha (@DG_PIB) 23 марта 2017 г.

​The Indian government has built the tunnel at a cost of US$ 559 million. The maximum height permitted in the tunnel is 5 meters and for checking the height, special sensors have been installed just before the toll points at both ends.

“An ideal example of the ‘Make in India’  and ‘Skill India’ initiative, the 9 km long, twin-tube, all-weather tunnel between Udhampur and Ramban in Jammu & Kashmir is not only India’s longest highways tunnel but also  Asia’s longest bi-directional highways tunnel. It is built at an elevation of 1,200 meters on one of the most difficult Himalayan terrains.”

India’s Border Road Organization had also submitted a proposal to extend this tunnel upto Gurez, which will double the length of tunell from 9 kilometers to 18 kilometers.

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