World’s Highest Tunnel Connecting Manali & Leh Complete After 10 Years

Photo courtesy: Hindustan Times

Manali: The construction of Atal tunnel, the world’s longest highway tunnel above 10,000 feet connecting Manali with Leh has been completed. It took 10 years to complete the work as against the target of six years.

“Atal Tunnel, connecting Manali to Leh, is the world”s longest highway tunnel above 10,000 feet. The estimated period for completion of this tunnel was less than 6 years but it was completed in 10 years,” KP Purushothaman, Chief Engineer was quoted as saying by NDTV.

“There are CCTV cameras at every 60 metres and emergency exit tunnels at every 500 metres inside the tunnel. The tunnel will reduce the distance between Manali and Leh by 46 kilometres and four hours can be saved,” he added.

Fire hydrants have also been installed inside the tunnel in case of any fire incident.

“The induction and de-induction of resources was a difficult task while it was under construction. We did face a lot of challenges but together we were able to complete its construction. The tunnel’s width is 10.5 metres, including footpath of 1 metre on both sides,” NDTV quoted the chief engineer as saying.