Banihal-Qazigund 8.5 km Strategic Tunnel To Open Soon – Free PDF Download

Qazi Gund-Banihal tunnel

• The double-tube four-lane Banihal-Qazigund tunnel constructed alongside the national highway of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is now ready and will soon be operational.
• It is a double tube tunnel consisting of two parallel tunnels – one for each direction of travel.
• Each tunnel is 7 m (23 ft) wide and has two lanes of road.
• The two tunnels are interconnected by a passage every 500 m (1,600 ft) for maintenance and emergency evacuation.
• The tunnel will have forced ventilation for extracting smoke and stale air and infusing fresh air. It will have state of the art monitoring and control systems for security.
• Built at a cost of Rs. 2,100 crore, it is expected that vehicles will have to pay a toll to use the tunnel.

About the Project

1. Banihal-Qazigund tunnel is 8.5 km long and was built at a cost of Rs 2,100 crore in over a decade.
2. The tunnel has been made at an average elevation of 1,790 mtr. Since this is 400 mtr lower than the Jawahar tunnel’s elevation, it will be less prone to avalanches.

Features of the tunnel

1. The tunnel has been made on the Build, Operate and Transfer base system.
2. It is attached with an exhaust system to remove gas and bring in fresh air.
3. It has 126 jet fans, 234 CCTV modern cameras and a firefighting system installed that has been installed in both tubes of the tunnel.
4. After every 500 mtr inside the tunnel, a corridor has been built between two tubes that will allow emergency exit to either tube.

Importance

1. The tunnel has positioned itself as a strategically-important road that will allow linking of Kashmir to other parts of the country.
2. The Qazi Gund-Banihal tunnel has bypassed the most difficult terrain on the national highway. The distance between the two points was earlier 16.5 kilometers, something that has nearly got cut to half.
3.  It will benefit people in a lot of ways. It will not only save the time but the tunnel will be open all through the year.

Timeline

• The work was started in June 2011 by Navyug Engineering Company with an aim to reduce the road distance between Banihal (Jammu) and Qazigund (Kashmir) by 16 km.
• It took the government 10 long years to make this tunnel as it faced major issues including that of adverse weather.

• On 16 June 2021, the officials conducted the first trial run of the traffic from both sides for two hours. Since then, they have been letting the traffic pass on regular intervals.
• “This will benefit us a lot. There were lot of landslides on the other route. There was no way to take a pregnant woman to hospital. We used to face problem while getting people from Jammu to Kashmir, we are eagerly waiting for this to become functional”,
• said Imtiaz Ahmad Beigh, a local resident.

Question:

Which of the following tunnel is also known as Pir Panjal Railway Tunnel?

A) The Banihal-Qazigund tunnel

B) Syama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel

C) Jawahar Tunnel

D) Atal Tunnel

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