It took 10 years for the Indian Army’s elite road construction agency, Border Roads Organisation, to complete the tunnel, constructed at Rs 3,300 CR.
9-km-long Atal Tunnel an engineering marvel
The nine-kilometre-long Atal Tunnel, running across the 13,050-ft high Rohtang pass, on the Manali-Leh axis is the highest motorable highway tunnel in the world. An engineering marvel, it took 10 years for the Indian Army’s elite road construction agency, Border Roads Organisation, to complete the tunnel, constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 3,300 crore. The construction contract of the tunnel was awarded to Strabag-Afcons, a joint venture between India-based Afcons Infrastructure and Austria’s Strabag. The 9.02-km long tunnel, shaped like a horse shoe, is the longest highway tunnel in the world and connects Manali to Lahaul-Spiti valley throughout the year. Earlier, the valley used to be cut off for about six months every year due to heavy snowfall. The tunnel has consumed 12,252 metric tonnes of steel, 1,69,426 metric tonnes of cement and 1,01,336 metric tonnes of concrete, and excavated 5,05,264 metric tonnes of soil and rocks by adopting the latest Austrian tunneling method for con…
