The 9.02 km Atal Tunnel will link Manali to the Lahaul-Spiti Valley throughout the year.
New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inaugurated the strategically important, all-weather Atal Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh, which connects Manali to the Lahaul-Spiti Valley and cuts travel time to Leh (in the territory of Ladakh Union) until five o’clock.
Described as the longest highway construction of its kind in the world (above 10,000 feet), the 9.02 km Atal Tunnel is named in honor of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose the government made the decision to build the tunnel in June 2000.
The tunnel is being built to “ultra-modern specifications” at an altitude of 3000 meters (10,000 feet) in the Pir Panjal Range of the Himalayas.
It is a horseshoe-shaped, single-tube, double-track tunnel with an eight-meter carriageway and a headroom of 5.525 meters, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
The tunnel was designed for a traffic density of 3,000 cars and 1,500 trucks per day, each capable of traveling at a maximum speed of 80 km / h.
The south portal (SP) of the tunnel is located at a distance of 25 km from Manali and at an altitude of 3060 meters. The North Portal (NP) is located near the village of Teling in the Lahaul Valley at an elevation of 3,071 meters.
