Amid the heightened border tension with both China and Pakistan in the Himalayas, road infrastructure projects have been given a push with completion of a marvel of engineering motorways — the Rohtang Pass highway tunnel.
Officials say the focus now is on constructing the strategic 13.5-km-long Shinku La tunnel, the shortest, safer and the third alternative corridor for the armed forces for forward areas of Union Territory of Ladakh.
Experts told IANS the 9.2 km-long horseshoe-shaped single-tube, two-lane tunnel — the world’s longest motorable tunnel at over 3,000 metre above the sea level — is a key step in the Defence Ministry’s attempt to make the 475-km Manali-Keylong-Leh highway, used mainly by the armed forces to reach forward areas in Ladakh bordering China and Pakistan, motorable round-the-year.
The Rohtang tunnel — a dream of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and named after him posthumously — is going to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his day-long visit on 3 October.Read more…
