“Kashmir’s youth have two paths – tourism or terrorism”, says PM

PM Narendra Modi on Sunday (2 April 2017) inaugurated India’s longest road tunnel, the Chenani-Nashri tunnel, in Jammu and Kashmir.

The 9.2 km-long tunnel will reduce the travel time between Jammu and Srinagar by 2 hours. It is also India’s first and the world’s sixth tunnel to have a transverse ventilation system, providing fresh air to passengers. “This is not merely a long tunnel. It is a giant leap in terms of development and progress for the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” PM Modi said at a public meeting in Udhampur.

He also praised those involved in the tunnel’s construction, particularly the Kashmiri youths who toiled in realising the multi-crore project. The Prime Minister then took a serious view of the reports of stone pelting by Kashmiri youths and told them that they had two paths open to them – one of tourism and the other of terrorism.

About the tunnel:

# The length of the tunnel is 9.28 km. The world’s longest highway tunnel is 24.51 km and is in Norway.

# It will reduce the travel distance between Jammu and Srinagar by 30.11 km, which will help save fuel worth Rs 27 lakh daily.

# Built on the lower Himalayan range at a height of 1,200 metres, it will cut travel time between the two cities by at least two hours.

# The project cost is Rs 3,720 crore, Rs 1,200 crore more than the initial estimated cost.

# Work on the tunnel system started on May 23, 2011.

# The main tunnel is 13 metre in diameter, the parallel escape tunnel is 6 metre diameter and are connected by 29 cross passages at 300-metre gap.

# The tunnel boasts of an integrated system that will control communication, ventilation, video surveillance, power supply, SOS call box, fire fighting and incident detection and an FM signal repeater.

# It is part of a 286-km-long four-lane project on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

# It is meant to avoid stretches of National Highway 44 prone to avalanches and landslides. Patnitop, Kud, and Batote will be bypassed now.

# The speed limit in the tunnel will be 50km/hour and headlights will have to be low beam