New Delhi: The 8.8-km-long Rohtang tunnel, which connects Himachal Pradesh with Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, and Manali with Leh, will now be known as the ‘Atal Tunnel’.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement while addressing a gathering at Vigyan Bhavan on the occasion of the 95th birth anniversary of late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Wednesday. “This is a small gift from the government to the people of Himachal on Atalji’s birthday.,” he said.
The tunnel is expected to be opened for traffic movement by May 2020.
The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet had passed a resolution for naming the Rohtang tunnel after Vajpayee In 2018 as a mark of respect to the BJP stalwart. The Border Roads Organisation, a wing of the central government, was entrusted the tasked of constructing the horseshoe-shaped tunnel which lies beneath the Rohtang Pass.
The connecting landlocked hinterland of Lahaul Valley with the rest of the world was conceived in 1998 by Vajpayee and he had laid the foundation stone of the project on 2003.
