Gadkari To Witness Opening Of India’s Longest Road Tunnel In Udhampur

12 July, Jammu

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari will visit Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow to witness the opening of India’s longest road tunnel, that will reduce distance between Jammu and Srinagar by 30 km as also traffic jams on the National Highway-1A, that occur due to snowfall and avalanche during winters at Patnitop.

Gadkari will be present at the final blast ceremony, when the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) engineers drill a hole through the final section of the tunnel between Chenani and Nashri.

The state-of-the-art tunnel is simultaneously being built from the two ends and the NHAI teams will meet at the centre by drilling a hole through the final section. The 9.2-km tunnel, which is part of the ambitious 286 km-long four-laning of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, will cut the distance between two cities of Jammu and Srinagar by around 30 km.

The road is likely to be opened to traffic in July next year. Work on the tunnel was started on May 23, 2011. The tunnel, connecting Chenani in Udhampur with Nashri in Ramban district, is being completed at a cost of more than Rs 2,500 crore.

It will also reduce the existing road distance between two points on the highway from 41 km to 10.89 km, an official statement here said.

NHAI is also constructing a parallel escape tunnel along with the main tunnel for evacuation of commuters, in case of any unfortunate eventuality. The two tubes of the tunnel will be internally connected through 29 ‘cross-passages’ (each at a gap of 300 mt) and the escape tunnel will exclusively be used for pedestrians.

There is a provision for ventilation, keeping in view the distance of the tunnel.

The tunnel project will also have parking spots after a specific distance to tow away or shift vehicles, in case of a breakdown. The four-lane project will go a long way in creating an all-weather road to Kashmir valley