Atal Tunnel


Atal Tunnel, named after Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is a highway tunnel being built under the Rohtang Pass in the eastern Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas on the Leh-Manali Highway. At length, the tunnel will be one of the longest road tunnels in India and is expected to reduce the distance between Manali and Keylong by about. The tunnel is at an elevation of whereas the Rohtang Pass is at an elevation of. The excavation of the tunnel completed in October 2017 when the blasting from south and north ends joined, and the completed tunnel will open in September 2020.
The Leh–Manali Highway, one of the two routes to Ladakh, will be routed through the tunnel in 2020. The Rohtang Pass receives heavy snowfall and blizzards during winter months and is open for road traffic for only four months in a year. The tunnel will keep the highway open during the winter. The other route to Leh is through the Zoji La pass on the Srinagar-Drass-Kargil-Leh highway which also gets blocked by snow for nearly four months in a year. Construction of a 14 km long tunnel under Zoji La pass has been planned. These two routes are vital to feed military supplies into military sub-sector in the west facing Aksai Chin and the Siachen Glacier.
The Atal Tunnel is not exactly under Rohtang pass; it is slightly west of the pass. The south entrance is north of Dhundi on the other side of the Beas River at. The northern end of the tunnel meets the existing Leh–Manali Highway near Teling village at 32.4388° North and 77.1642° East coordinates about 10 km west of Gramphu which is the first village after Rohtang Pass on the existing highway.

History

First time the Moravian Mission in 1860 has talked about the possibility of a tunnel through Rohtang Pass to reach Lahaul and later prime minister Nehru talked about a rope way to Rohtang Pass which again made a point of discussion among the local tribes. After almost 139 years of the first instance, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the prime minister and a resident of Lahaul, Arjun Gopal, was known as childhood friend of Vajpayee, the locals insisted Arjun Gopal to meet the Prime Minister and talk about Rohtang Tunnel. Then he moved with two of his companions Chhering Dorje and Abhay Chand to Delhi and after continuous discussions of about one year, finally Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee agreed and visited headquarter of Lahaul in June 2000 and declared that the Rohtang Tunnel will be constructed. A feasibility study for the construction of a tunnel across Rohtang Pass was conducted by RITES.
Rohtang tunnel was planned for ensuring an all-weather road route to strategically important areas of Ladakh and providing round-the-year connectivity to the remote Lahaul-Spiti valley. However, the construction of Rohtang tunnel will provide all-weather connectivity only to the Lahaul Valley of Himachal Pradesh up to Kyelang. The all-weather road to Ladakh will require more tunnels: either at Shikunla, or at the passes located on the present Leh-Manali road for a year-round road connectivity to Ladakh.
The project was conceived in 1983 and announced by prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 3 June 2000. However the project did not take off.
The project was estimated to cost ₹5 billion in 2000 to be completed in seven years. On 6 May 2002, the Border Roads Organization was entrusted with the construction of the tunnel.
However, still the work did not progress much and the project did not move beyond the tree-felling stage by May 2003. By December 2004, the project cost estimate had escalated to ₹17 billion. In May 2007, the contract was awarded to SMEC International Private Limited, an Australian company, and the completion date was revised to 2014. Despite multiple announcements that the work on the tunnel would begin in 2008, no progress had been made by November 2009.
The work was awarded to a joint venture of AFCONS Infrastructure Limited, an Indian construction company of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, and STRABAG AG, Austria in September 2009 after the Cabinet Committee on Security cleared the Rohtang Tunnel Project. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, in her capacity as the National Advisory Council chief, declared open the tunnel drilling at south end of the tunnel. The drilling of the Rohtang Tunnel through the Himalayan ranges began on 28 June 2010 at South Portal north of Manali. Some of the anchoring and slope stabilization work was sub contracted to Spar Geo Infra Pvt Ltd.
The Border Roads Organisation, a tri-service organisation of the Defence Ministry specialising in road and bridge construction in difficult terrains, is overall in-charge of the project. It had initially estimated that the tunnel would be ready for vehicle flow by 2015.
On 25 December 2019, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's birthday, the tunnel was renamed after him and dedicated to the nation by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Status of progress of the project

Total length of tunnel is 8.8 km.
The most challenging task was to continue the excavation during heavy snowfall in winter. Excavation for tunnelling was done from both ends. However, as Rohtang pass closes during the winter, the north portal was not accessible during winter and the excavation was being done only from the south portal in winters. Only about one-fourth of the entire tunnel was excavated from the north end and three-fourths was excavated from the south end. There were more than 46 avalanche sites on approaches to the tunnel.
Other challenges to the progress of the tunnel included difficulties in disposing more than 800,000 m³ of excavated rock and soil, heavy ingress of water that required constant dewatering, costlier treatment and slowed the progress of excavation from 5 metre per day to just half a metre a day and unstable rocks that slowed blasting and digging. A cloud-burst and flash flood on 8 August 2003 killed 42 labourers who were building the temporary access road. Questions were also raised on the impact of cutting down more than 700 trees on the ecology.

Specifications

The tunnel is intended to create an all-weather route to Leh and Lahaul and Spiti valleys in Himachal Pradesh.
Salient features of the proposed Rohtang Tunnel are as follows:
The following parameters have been set in design:
Project Cost : Approximately Rs.40 billion

Safety measures

A 2.25 m high and 3.6 m wide emergency tunnel will be integrated in the tunnel cross-section beneath the main carriageway for evacuation during emergencies.
The latest Austrian tunnelling method and ventilation system — semi transverse type considered as safest — will be adopted for this project. Heavy snowfall in the Rohtang Pass area is a major concern, especially on the approach roads to the main tunnel. To prevent any damage to the roads and to ensure the safety of the roads and tunnel users alike, avalanche control structures are being constructed. The design for these structures is being provided by the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment of DRDO.
As the Rohtang tunnel will witness heavy traffic, vehicular management and checking pollution is a priority. For this, CCTV cameras would be placed at a regular distance and will be further connected to two monitoring rooms on both ends of the tunnel. Sensors to check the pollution level will keep on updating the data and if the record is above the desired level, then quantity of fresh air injected inside the tunnel would be increased. Pollution level will be controlled within 90 seconds adding that two heavy duty fans each on both openings of the tunnel will be installed to inject fresh air inside.
The tunnel will have semi-transverse ventilation system, where large fans would separately circulate air throughout the tunnel length. Another safety feature being added is that fire inside the tunnel will be controlled within an area of 200 metres and fire hydrants will be provided on specific locations.
The tunnel will also have public announcement system to make important announcement in emergency situations for which loudspeakers will be installed at regular distances.

Trivia