The 9.2 km-long road tunnel that bores through the belly of the lower Himalayas between Chenani in Udhampur district and Nashri in Ramban district is an achievement of engineering that incorporates India’s first fully integrated mechanism to externally control everything from the movement of vehicles to the inflow and outflow of air, and even the evacuation of passengers or vehicles in distress.
The tunnel, built at the cost of Rs 3,720 crore in a record time of 5 and a half years by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) Ltd, is located at an altitude of 1,200 metres (nearly 4,000 feet) in difficult Himalayan terrain. It will reduce the travel time on National Highway 44 between Jammu and Srinagar by about 2 hours by shortening the distance between the cities by 30 km, and will altogether bypass Kud, Patnitop and Batote, locations where the highway is prone to being blocked by snow and landslides.
