India's longest road tunnel and first of its kind to introduce transverse ventilation system, the newly inaugurated Chenani- Nashri road tunnel which is a part of Jammu-Srinagar highway is proving itself as the construction marvel with outlandish innovation.
This tunnel is a part of four lane project of Jammu-Srinagar highway which is of 293 kilometers. This project aimed to increase travel efficiency between Jammu-Srinagar with 13 tunnels of length 22 kms in between reducing 293 kms to 62 kms. Chenani-Nashri road tunnel is the major one among those tunnels with approximately 10 kilometers in length. One more tunnel connecting Banihal and Quazigund with a length of 8.45 kilometers with same innovative technologies like accident detection systems, emergency evacuation, transverse ventilation system, etc., as that of Chenani-Nashri tunnel is in progress.
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| image: CS |
Mind-boggling facts about Chenani-Nashri tunnel:
- It is the longest road tunnel of India and longest bidirectional highway tunnel in Asia.
- Chenani-Nashri tunnel which is of length 9.4 kilometers reduced the distance of 41 kilometers which saves a fuel worth 27 lakhs per day and travel time from 2.5 hours to 20 minutes.
- It is the first tunnel in India and sixth in the world to adopt Transverse ventilation system. In Transverse ventilation system inlets for fresh air and sufficient exhaust outlets are provided.
- It is provided with a escape tube of 6 m diameter alongside the main tube of 13 m diameter. This escape tube is for emergency evacuation, vehicle break downs, exhaust outlets, etc.,
- About 13,000 to 15,000 vehicles pass through this tunnel everyday. Tunnel is provided with three-tier power system to illuminate the tunnel 24/7.
- At present it takes about 9 hours to reach Srinagar from Jammu sometimes even much time beacuse of halts due to landslides. Upon completion of all the tunnels and four laning, the travel time and fuel consumption will be reduced significantly.
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| illustration: CS |
Civil Scholar is a Blog by Aravind Samala on Construction, Environment, Technology, Trends and Innovation.