Jammu: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today dedicated to the nation the South-East Asia’s longest tunnel between Chenani in Udhampur district and Nashri of Ramban district on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.The state-of-the-art 9.2-km bidirectional tube is a part of the ambitious 286-km-long four-laning of the Jammu-Srinagar highway. It will reduce the distance between the state’s summer capital (Srinagar) and the winter capital (Jammu) by 31 km, cut the travel time by two hours and save fuel worth Rs 27 lakh per day. The structure consists of a 9-km-long, two-lane main tunnel with a parallel escape tunnel of the same length. The two tunnels are connected by 29 cross-passages at regular intervals along the entire length of the tunnel.Built at an elevation of 1,200 m on one of the most difficult Himalayan terrains, the tunnel will ensure an all-weather passage on a route that often sees heavy traffic jams and disruptions due to landslides, snow, sharp curves, breakdown of vehicles and accidents.Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Jitendra Singh, Governor NN Vohra and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti received and accompanied the Prime Minister, who also rode the complete distance of 9.2 km in the tunnel in an open jeep to reach Nashri, the north-end of the tunnel.“I want to convey to the people of Kashmir that the tunnel might have been constructed between Udhampur and Ramban, but it will be a line of good fortune and destiny for them. It will prove a boon for farmers of Kashmir who have been facing losses due to poor connectivity and hostile weather conditions. They will now be able to sell their produce in Delhi markets. It will end the financial losses being suffered by them,” Modi said while addressing a rally in Udhampur after inaugurating the tunnel.“This is not merely a long tunnel. It is a big leap in terms of development and progress for the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Modi said.The work on the tunnel was started 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 bond with the rest of the country.Constructed at a whopping cost of Rs 2,519 crore, the tunnel is the first in India to be equipped with the world-class integrated tunnel control system, through which ventilation, fire control, signals, communication, electrical systems and tolling etc are automatically actuated.“The tunnel has an efficient, transverse ventilation system. There are inlets bringing fresh air at 8-m intervals and outlet for exhaust every 100 m. There is also a fully integrated control system with ventilation, communication, power supply, incident detection, SOS call box and fire fighting. Fitted with intelligent traffic mechanism, the tunnel has fully automatic smart control and no human intervention will be required for its operations. The tunnel is also equipped with advanced scanners to ward off any security threat. Very few tunnels in the world have this kind of fully integrated control,” said an official spokesperson.The tunnel is illuminated with around 4,000 lights installed inside the two-lane tube. About 600 bulbs of 150 Watts each are installed in the escape tunnels while there are 1,200 lamps along the footpaths on both sides for pedestrians. At least 124 CCTV cameras have been installed at equal intervals of 75 m to keep round-the-clock surveillance on the movement of vehicles inside the tunnel. The maximum speed limit in the tunnel is 50 kmph.The project has provided employment to over 2,000 unskilled and skilled youth of J&K as 94 per cent of the work force was from the state. Around 600 to 900 people from across the country also worked on the project in three shifts over the past four years.
PM inspects tunnel, all praise for it PM Narendra Modi on Sunday inspected the 9.2-km Chenani-Nashri tunnel after dedicating it to the nation. He travelled through the tunnel from its south-end at Chenani up to the north-end at Nashri. He was accompanied by Governor NN Vohra and CM Mehbooba Mufti in an open Gypsy while Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and others travelled in another vehicle. After flying to Udhampur in his official plane, the PM reached Kendriya Vidyalaya at Chenani in a helicopter and then drove to the tunnel where he reached at 3.44 pm. He then boarded the Gypsy at the Chenani-end and inspected the tunnel by travelling up to Nashri. He then returned to Chenani. Modi also inspected an SOS call unit and walked inside the escape tunnel. After spending 40 minutes inside the tunnel, he was all praise for it during his speech at Udhampur where thousands of people had reached to listen to him. TNS
Commuters stranded after highway shut for inaugurationWhile Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Chenani-Nashri tunnel on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway, commuters faced the heat as all traffic was stopped on the highway. No vehicle was allowed to move on the highway either from Jammu to Srinagar or to Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar districts or from the other side to Jammu since Sunday morning till evening when the PM left. Every day thousands of vehicles ply on the highway which is the lifeline of the state. Thousands of people from Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar districts daily come to Jammu for their official and personal work. Many ambulances carry patients from these districts to Government Medical College, Jammu, but all these were halted on Sunday as the PM had to inaugurate the tunnel. “Thousands of passengers left stranded in scorching heat, just to inaugurate a tunnel. #Fruits_Of_Democracy,” wrote a lawyer, Babur, on his Facebook page. Most of the people didn’t vent their anger on social networking sites but they were upset as neither the state government nor the administration had given any prior information for closing of the highway for the day. TNS
Not part of dais gathering, MLA skips functionUdhampur MLA Pawan Gupta boycotted the function organised in his constituency for Prime Minister Narendra Modi after allegedly being humiliated by state BJP leadership. “There was no reason to attend the function when due regard was not given to the people’s representative,” enraged Gupta told The Tribune. “Being the representative of the local people, it was my duty to welcome the dignitary, like the Prime Minister, but due to dirty politics the local BJP leadership managed to get my name deleted from the list of persons who were to share the dais with the Prime Minister.” The function was held in the area that falls under the Udhampur Assembly constituency. As per the protocol, the organisers had to give importance to local MLA Pawan Gupta but due to “threats” from local BJP leaders, his name was deleted from the list of those persons who shared the dais with the Prime Minister. “Earlier my name was in the list but due to threats by some local BJP leaders, I was asked to sit with the audience. It is a humiliation to the institution of an MLA so I decided to stay away from the function,” Gupta said, adding that when former PM Manmohan Singh had inaugurated the Udhampur railway station some time ago, local MLA Balwant Singh Mankotia, who belonged to Panthers Party, was given due respect. “Settling political score in such functions reflect the cheap politics of the local unit of the BJP,” Gupta said, adding that by humiliating him the BJP had insulted the people of Udhampur. OC