Priya Bharti Atal Tunnel, the 9.02 km-long tunnel, has been certified as the longest highway tunnel above 10,000 feet by the World Book of Records UK, the Ministry of Defence was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. The World Book of Records UK is an organization that identifies and verifies extraordinary records globally with authentic certification.
The Ministry said that “Atal Tunnel has officially been certified by World Book of Records as ‘World’s Longest Highway Tunnel above 10,000 Feet’. Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhary, Director General of Border Roads Organisation (BRO) received the award for achievement of BRO for constructing this,”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated this tunnel to the nation on October 3, 2020. Atal Tunnel, constructed on the Manali-Leh highway, reduces the road distance between Manali and Leh by 46 km and travel time by 5 hours. This tunnel has been built in the Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas at an altitude of 3,000 metres or 10,000 feet from the mean sea level.
The ‘Atal’ is a horseshoe-shaped, single-tube double lane tunnel with a roadway of 8 metres and an overhead clearance of 5.525 metres. It has been designed for a traffic density of 3,000 cars per day and 1,500 trucks per day with a maximum speed of 80 kmph and also has telephone connectivity at every 150 metres in the event of an emergency.
The tunnel, named after the former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee, boasts of a gamut of safety features. These features include SCADA-controlled fire fighting, state-of-the-art electromechanical systems like semi-transverse ventilation, illumination, and monitoring systems.
Source: Business Today
