PM Modi to inaugurate country's longest road tunnel
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday will dedicate the country's longest road tunnel built on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway.
The tunnel will reduce the travel time between Jammu and Srinagar by two-and-a-half hours.
The tunnel will be the first in the country to be equipped with world class integrated tunnel control system through which ventilation, fire control, signals, communication and electrical systems will be automatically actuated.
Some facts about the project
- 9.28 km: Length of the tunnel. The world’s longest tunnel (24.5 km) is in Norway
- 30.11 km: Reduction in travel distance between Jammu and Srinagar. Travel time will go down by 2 hours
- Rs 27 Lakh: Cost of fuel that will be saved daily
- RS 3,720 crore: Construction cost of the tunnel is Rs 1,200 crore more than the initial cost
- May 23, 2011: Date on which works started on the tunnel
- Main tunnel is 13 metre in diameter, parallel escape tunnel has 6 metre diameter and are connected by 29 cross passages at 300-metre interval
- The work on the 9.2 km-long twin-tube tunnel, which is part of a 286-km-long four-lane project on the highway, started on May 23, 2011 in lower Himalayan mountain range.
- The road distance between Chenani and Nashri will now be reduced to 10.9 km, instead of the existing 41 km.
