Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel, also known as Chenani-Nashri Tunnel is a road tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is located in the Lower Himalayas, on National Highway 44. Construction started in 2011 and was completed by 2017.
It is India's longest road tunnel with a length of , and the country's first tunnel with a fully integrated tunnel control system. It reduces the distance between Jammu and Srinagar by 30 km and travel time by two hours. The all-weather tunnel bypasses snowfall and avalanche prone areas in winter at places like Patnitop, Kud, and Batote that obstruct NH 44 every winter and cause long queues of vehicles; sometimes for days. It is named after Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who served as the Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet and later founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
Location
The tunnel is located on the lower Himalayan range at an altitude of . The southern portal (end) of the tunnel is at and the northern portal (end) of the tunnel is at coordinates . The tunnel has been excavated starting from about from Chenani town south of Patnitop to Nashri village north of Patnitop.
Construction
The foundation was laid for the project in July 2011 by the then Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah with Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, under the ruling UPA government. However the project stalled for the next few year and saw wide fluctuations in estimates with funding difficulties. The original estimate to build this two-lane tunnel was , but escalated to a total of . The scheduled date of completion for the project was May 2016. Later, due to a dispute between the construction workers and the executing agency, the work was delayed and the next planned date was then further extended to July 2016.
On 12 October 2016, it was reported that almost all the work had been completed due to pressure from Modi's office and the remaining work was planned to be finished in a few days and that "98 percent civil work including construction of 9 km tunnel and its approach road has been completed while the installation of equipment and gadgets like sound diffusers, ventilators, fans, firefighter equipment, electrical panels, transformers, lighting etc. inside the tunnel is under progress and likely to be completed in next 20–30 days." They added that after the completion of remaining work, it has to pass the quality and commuters’ safety tests, and that the entire process would be completed by last week of November and authorities will inaugurate the "ambitious" project in the first week of December.
However on 3 February 2017, official sources said that the project was getting delayed due to bad weather conditions and snowfall on the highway, which snapped the electricity supply to the area and so the executing agency was unable to continue with the required testing and inspection processes.
According to a news article on 1 March 2017, the Independent Engineers (IEs) reported that the demonetisation on 8 November 2016 resulted in work getting affected as the contractors failed to pay the labour involved in the work. The Construction Company's Executive, Shafaq Syed also confirmed, "Demonetisation crippled our working. We were unable to make payments to our subcontractors.."
The tunnel was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2 April 2017. The construction involved nearly 1,500 engineers, geologists and labourers, besides skilled workers. The National Highways Authority of India has spent ₹3,720 crore on the project.
Features and benefits
Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel comprises two tubes that run parallel to each other — the main traffic tunnel of diameter 13 m and a separate safety or escape tunnel of diameter 6 m alongside. The two tubes — each approximately 9 km long — are connected by 29 cross passages at regular intervals of every 300 metres along the entire length of the tunnel. These passages add up to about 1 km of tunnel length, and the main and escape tubes, plus the cross passages make up about 19 km of tunnel length. Since such a long tunnel could present the problem of a lack of oxygen, to ensure that there is no excessive carbon-dioxide build-up inside, there are several exhaust metres that will check the air all through the length of the tunnel. With inlets, every 8 metres, bringing fresh air into the main tube, and exhaust outlets every 100 m opening into the escape tube, the tunnel is the country’s first, and the world’s sixth, road tunnel with a transverse ventilation system.
