ENGINEERING MARVEL ON SGR-JMU NATIONAL HIGHWAY;Modi likely to throw open India’s longest tunnel in Jan

By admin On Dec 23, 2016

aaryan sharma
JAMMU: The long wait of roadies and regular commuters pulling up and down the 300 km long Jammu- Srinagar National Highway would soon be over as National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is all set to complete the construction and allied works on the country’s longest road tunnel in the next couple of days before throwing it open early next year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to dedicate the engineering marvel to the people of the State early next year.
At present the schedule of the Prime Minister’s visit has not been finalised but efforts are on to fine-tune the programme for the inauguration ceremony of the tunnel.
The tunnel is expected to cut down the distance by around 30 kilometers and will save roughly two hours.
Once thrown open for vehicular traffic, the nine km long road tunnel, built at a cost of over 37,00 crores, will launch India among the elite nations who have graduated to the use of integrated tunnel control system.
This is for the first time this technique has been adopted by the NHAI along the crucial highway road.
This technique would ensure automatic control of tunnel lighting, ventilation, communication, fire control, vehicle monitoring etc.
According to senior officers of NHAI, the civil works inside the tunnel have been completed. Only some works on the north side is pending which will be completed in next eight to 10 days. Mechanical and electric works are currently going on and would be completed in the first week of January 2017.
In addition to the main tunnel, it will have a parallel escape tunnel for the evacuation of commuters in case of any eventuality.
The two tubes of the tunnel will be internally connected through 29 cross-passages (each after a gap of 300 meters) and the escape tunnel will be used exclusively by pedestrians.
There are two ducts in the tunnel -one for fresh air and another for exhausting the polluted air. There are CCTVs, fight fighting equipment and communication systems installed all along the route. If anything goes wrong the people sitting in the control room will come to know instantly.
Construction work on the prestigious project was started in May 2011 and already the project has missed several deadlines, official sources said.