[blackwasp]

The construction of the Atal Tunnel connecting Manali with Leh, which is the world's longest highway tunnel above 10,000 feet, has been completed in a span of 10 years whereas the original estimated time was less than 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," said KP Purushothaman, Chief Engineer.

"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," said Purushothaman.

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," said Purushothaman.

Speaking to ANI, Colonel Parikshit Mehra, Director, Atal Tunnel project said that many experts working within the team were of the opinion to change the alignment of the tunnel.

"We have had this dream to connect Leh and this was the first step to the connectivity ladder. This tunnel was a challenging project because we were working only from two ends. The other end was in North, across the Rohtang Pas which was accessible only for around five months in a year," he added.

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[indian21r]

Now these are things we really need. Excellent Job BRO. They mentioned longest, but what is the length of the tunnel.

I remember in 2012 Rohtang Pass having long queues. People going to Leh can avoid that traffic jam and enjoy the journey better.

Next in line is the Zozilla Pass. Once that is done both army and civilians will save lots of time

[mvadg]

Atal Tunnel
Lots of interesting information in the Wikipedia entry above.

Trivia
When completed, the 9.02 km (5.6 mi) long tunnel is also set to become the world longest tunnel at an altitude above 3,000 m or 10,000 ft. The nearest in comparison to the Rohtang Tunnel would be the Anzob Tunnel in Tajikistan (length 5 km (3.1 mi), altitude 3,372 metres (11,063 ft)), Salang Tunnel in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan (length 2.6 km, altitude 3,400m) and the Eisenhower–Johnson Memorial Tunnel in the United States (length 2.73 km (1.7 mi), altitude 3,401 m (11,158 ft)). There were proposals of installing a Neutrino detector in the tunnel by Panjab University and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.[47] After frequent visits of Director General Border Roads, officials from Defence Ministry and Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, August 31, 2020 is the new deadline to complete the remaining works in the tunnel. Started on June 28, 2010, the engineering marvel Atal Tunnel is expected to inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi in September 2020.[48] The 117 km distance from Manali to Keylong on the other side of Rohtang Pass is usually covered by vehicles in about five to six hours, without counting the long hours of traffic jams on the hilly route. The same distance would now be covered in less than half-an-hour through the tunnel and without traffic snarls. Keylong would be just 40 km from North Portal and 49 km from the South Portal of the tunnel.

[Shreyans_Jain]

A long awaited project is finally complete. Kudos to BRO. Will lead to some much needed de-crowding of Rohtang. Best for snow hunting tourists, best for people going to Lahaul and Ladakh, best for our troops.

On a related note, do members feel such tunnels will reduce the charm of the Manali-Leh road trip? Rohtang after all was not just a landmark but a major challenge. It tested your skills as well as your patience. Now, any novice can zip through in 45minutes.

[KPR]

Dreadful was crossing Rohtang pass while descending from Leh side by car. Rain+slippery roads, deep potholes, under belly hits, bumper to bumper traffic, tourist traffic what not! This tunnel will save for sure atleast half a day of Leh pilgrimage. Thanks to Govt and BRO.

[RedTerrano]

Finally!
First announced officially in 2000.
Completed in 2020.
20 years for ~44 KM tunnel

So the files moved through the red tape at 2.2 KM per year (compare to 30KM road construction per day as per 2018-19 statistics)
Hail bureaucracy !?

I have never been to this region, but I understand as per news reports that this tunnel will save 4 hours of travel time.
Excellent reason to rectify the mistake and take a dekko myself.

[V.Narayan]

Kudos to the BRO and all supporting organizations for this accomplishment. The BRO continues to render yeoman service to the nation. How I wish other Govt departments worked in a like fashion of dedication, sense of purpose and timeliness. At a time when the nation is facing challenges on several fronts the progress in building roads is one bright spot we have - not just the Atal Tunnel but also the several thousand kms of national and state highways that are being built each year. Building a road to a village or town opens up commerce like few other assets. Our national highway network has grown from ~70k kms in 1990 to ~146k kms in 2020 of which 4k were built in FY2019-20. And over the next 2 years the GoI plans to build/re-build 65,000 kms of national & state highways at an outlay of ~USD 740bn.

The BRO is presently involved with 17 tunnel projects {road and rail} across the Himalayan border with China. This is to improve our connectivity year round to strategic hard to access locations. The total length of these 17 projects is a staggering 100,000 metres of tunneling. Power to them.

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

On a related note, do members feel such tunnels will reduce the charm of the Manali-Leh road trip? Rohtang after all was not just a landmark but a major challenge. It tested your skills as well as your patience. Now, any novice can zip through in 45minutes.

In a way, yes. I've been in the region many times and there are other similar tunnels, but I consider these tunnels another wonder of this region. The tunnels themselves are impressive feats of engineering and a short break from the mountainous roads is not really a bad thing. So, my answer is - it depends!

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

I have never been to this region, but I understand as per news reports that this tunnel will save 4 hours of travel time.
Excellent reason to rectify the mistake and take a dekko myself.

You should travel to that region, mind boggling to a person who spent much of his life in the South. Rivers, mountains, and gorges like you've never seen before. And you'll see the work of our engineers too - impressive! (And do visit Sikkim and Bhutan, you'll see the Himalayas in their near pristine state).

[Cessna182]

Wonderful achievement. BRO has some of the best engineers in the country. I, like most others, look forward to driving on this after the corona situation improves.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Finally!
First announced officially in 2000.
Completed in 2020.
20 years for ~44 KM tunnel

So the files moved through the red tape at 2.2 KM per year (compare to 30KM road construction per day as per 2018-19 statistics)
Hail bureaucracy !?

I have never been to this region, but I understand as per news reports that this tunnel will save 4 hours of travel time.
Excellent reason to rectify the mistake and take a dekko myself.

The tunnel itself is only 8.9 Kms long (not 44km), but its saves a distance of 46 Kms on the Manali - Leh route.

It is a marvel of construction because of the altitude and terrain and weather where it was built. Also, there was an underground river (under Mountain) which was very difficult to curtail and it caused flooding - that challenge took a lot of time to overcome. Someday this would make an interesting movie story!

[libranof1987]

A commendable feat indeed. Having made a few of trips in HP and Uttarakhand, I've seen first hand the significance of the work done by B.R.O. It is not just the engineering aspect of it given the vulnerability of the terrain but also their commitment and readiness to clear out roads as swiftly and safely as possible.

This done, we also need to discuss the other aspect of such developments: the impact of increased traffic and infrastructure in such a delicate ecosystem. For instance: Valley of Flowers, Badrinath (a revered Hindu temple), Hemkund Sahib (a revered Sikh shrine) share the same route for the most part (until Govindghat). The road network is maintained by B.R.O. and landslides are very common in this region; it is a terrifying sight to see the amount of mountains we have encroached upon/destroyed to make way. And these roads need to be maintained given the flourishing leisure/religious tourism in this region.

While constructions such as the Atal Tunnel are very necessary given the benefits they bring about, from an administration, connectivity and security point of view, I do hope we can somehow maintain the delicate balance between developing infrastructure vs. disturbing a vulnerable ecosystem.

[ruzbehxyz]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

On a related note, do members feel such tunnels will reduce the charm of the Manali-Leh road trip? Rohtang after all was not just a landmark but a major challenge. It tested your skills as well as your patience. Now, any novice can zip through in 45minutes.

Its not about you and me, but for the defense of the nation. With the Manali- Leh road being closed for about 4-6 months in a year, it was always a major issue for the Army to transport men and material to the northern areas. Such roads are built to facilitate movement of Army and not for civilians. Civilians come second. The main idea is to have 24x7 access to Ladakh and border ideas. These ideas were there in the pipeline for years, but did not materialize.
The actual adventure for Ladakh on this road (Manali-Leh) is actually already lost with roads now butter smooth except the passes. You can talk to people who visited these places before year 2000. Now if you start from Manali at 4am, you can be at Leh at 9pm. Earlier the route took two days with night halt at Keylong, Jispa or Darcha. Nowadays also its better to do it in 2 days to be comfortable.

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Finally!
First announced officially in 2000.
Completed in 2020.
20 years for ~44 KM tunnel
So the files moved through the red tape at 2.2 KM per year (compare to 30KM road construction per day as per 2018-19 statistics)
Hail bureaucracy !?

The foundation stone was laid in 2000 but construction started only in 2010. So it actually took 10 years to construct. The ecosystem is so fragile here, that construction at such heights is a big challenge. Besides BRO could work only 6-8 months in a year, leave aside the winters which see heavy snowfall. So I can say it took little less than 10 years to construct. Bureaucracy is definitely to blame but better late than never.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The BRO is presently involved with 17 tunnel projects {road and rail} across the Himalayan border with China. This is to improve our connectivity year round to strategic hard to access locations. The total length of these 17 projects is a staggering 100,000 metres of tunneling. Power to them.

Absolutely correct.
BRO is involved in building strategic roads all around the borders to facilitate quicker movement of defense staff.

The Atal tunnel is actually a part of the 24x7 access to Leh and beyond.
2 years back the Shinkula pass road from Darcha was constructed to connect the Zanskar Valley onwards to Kargil and Leh.
However this road is very rough with river crossings and is not 24x7, so Government has announced a tunnel here as well.



Summary of the Roads:-

1. Original route: Manali - Rohtang pass - Keylong - Leh. Now Rohtang will be passed by Atal tunnel soon.

2. New Road, opened in Sep 2019: Darcha - Shinkula - Padum.
Very challenging roads.
Route: Manali- Keylong - Darcha - Shinkula - Padum.
From Padum you can go to Kargil onwards to Leh, another challenge at Pensila.

3. New Road, opened in July 2020:
Padum - Zangla - Lingshed - Lamayuru - Leh. Lamayuru is on the Srinagar - Leh highway.

4. New road under construction.
Padum - Zangla - Chilling - Nimmoo - Leh. Nimoo is on Srinagar - Leh road and just 35 kms from Leh.
This road is alonside the Zanskar River.

Once this road will be completed, Manali to Leh will be 24x7.

Final all weather route will be: Manali - Atal tunnel - Keylong - Darcha - Shinkula - Padum - Chilling - Nimoo - Leh.
This route bypasses all the high altitude passes like Rohtang, Baralachala, Tanglangla.
Only hindrance is Shinkula, which will see a tunnel soon.

Besides the benefits to defence, the people of Zanskar have benefitted a lot because they remained isolated for centuries. From their villages around Padum, they had to trek on the Zanskar river to come to Leh in winters, which we call the Chadar trek today. Pregnant women had to walk all the way upto Leh in these terrains. They would stock food for 6 months in a year and not see sunlight for months in winters. Such were the hardships. All this was till the 1990's. So these roads have benefitted everybody.

[srini1785]

First up, congrats to BRO for completing this task.

Are these tunnels under BSF or under civilian government of Ladakh? i.e Post trifurcation of J&K?.

Its exactly these type of projects that are unnerving our eastern neighbor.

[SmartCat]

Atal Tunnel drivethrough video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0P29NRwVcI

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

The tunnel itself is only 8.9 Kms long (not 44km), but its saves a distance of 46 Kms on the Manali - Leh route.

Ah ok. I was not aware of this.
I went by the Wiki article which quotes it at ~44KM

Originally Posted by Behemoth

It is a marvel of construction because of the altitude and terrain and weather where it was built. Also, there was an underground river (under Mountain) which was very difficult to curtail and it caused flooding - that challenge took a lot of time to overcome. Someday this would make an interesting movie story!

Wow! Underground river! That sounds very interesting as well as obviously challenging.
If you have any details about this river, please do share.

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

The foundation stone was laid in 2000 but construction started only in 2010. So it actually took 10 years to construct. The ecosystem is so fragile here, that construction at such heights is a big challenge. Besides BRO could work only 6-8 months in a year, leave aside the winters which see heavy snowfall. So I can say it took little less than 10 years to construct. Bureaucracy is definitely to blame but better late than never.

Yes I can imagine the hurdles high altitude and weather can pose. Having driven on some roads built by the BRO in the NE, I know they always do a super job. Even here, I am sure they must have overcome these challenges with their usual elan. As always hats off to BRO.