PM Modi inaugurates South-East Asia’s longest tunnel in J&K

Jammu, April 2
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated South-East Asia’s longest tunnel on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
The tunnel will connect Chenani in Udhampur district to Nashri of Ramban district in the state.

The state-of-art 9.2 km all-weather tunnel is a part of the ambitious 286 km-long four-laning of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
It will reduce the distance between the state’s summer (Srinagar) and winter capitals (Jammu) by 31 km.
Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Jitendra Singh, J-K Governor NN Vohra and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti received the Prime Minister, who later rode the complete distance of 9.2 km to reach Nashri, the north end of the tunnel.
Work on the tunnel began on May 23, 2011, and its expected date of completion was May 2016 but the completion got delayed due to technical reasons and some “unavoidable circumstances”.
The opening of tunnel will strengthen the Kashmir Valley’s integration with the rest of the country.
Built at a cost of Rs 3,720 crore, the tunnel is the first in India to be equipped with world-class Integrated Tunnel Control System, through which ventilation, fire control, signals, communication, electrical systems tolling, etc, is automatically controlled.
It will save fuel to the tune of Rs 27 lakh per day between Chenani and Nashri.
It will cost a light motor vehicle Rs 55 for one side journey and Rs 85 for a to and fro journey as the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the nodal agency in the execution of work, has set up toll points at both the ends. For a month’s travel, the motorists will have to shell out Rs 1,870.
The vehicles such as small buses will have pay Rs 90 for one-way and Rs 135 for to and fro.
Buses and trucks will be charged Rs 190 for a single journey and Rs 285 for return. The collection of toll from road users will start from Monday morning.
The NHAI has also constructed a parallel escape tunnel (6-m diameter) along with the main tunnel (13-m in diameter) for evacuation of commuters in case of emergency.
The two nine km-long tubes are connected by 29 cross passages at regular intervals along the entire length of the tunnel.
The tunnel has been illuminated with around 4,000 lights. At least 124 CCTV cameras have been installed at equal intervals of 75 metre to keep round-the-clock surveillance on the movement of vehicles inside the tunnel.

The maximum speed limit to be followed in this tunnel is 50kmph. Mobile network of telecom operators including Airtel, Idea and BSNL; and 92.7 FM Radio channel facility is also functional inside the tunnel.