Highway network to strengthen; 74 new tunnels to be built in the country

New Delhi| To strengthen the highway network in the country, the central government has decided to build 74 new tunnels in the coming years. The estimated cost of these projects is around Rs 1 lakh crore. 35 tunnels of 49 km length have already been built by the government at a cost of Rs 15,000 crore. Now the government is preparing to build 273 kilometers of new tunnels. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the network of tunnels in the country has strengthened significantly in the last few years. At present, about 69 tunnels of 134 km length are being built at a cost of Rs 40,000 crore.

At FICCI’s Tunneling India Conference in the national capital, it was said on behalf of the minister that the government is working towards making India a $5 trillion economy. The Union Minister said that the safety of citizens on the roads is the first priority. Cost-effective sustainable solutions are needed to protect roads from rainfall, landslides and floods. The government has allowed 51 percent foreign stake in the joint venture created to build the tunnel and Detailed Project Reports (DPR) to improve the quality of work. “We have to find solutions that have good technology without compromising on quality and are also cost-effective”, Gadkari said. The focus of the government is to continuously strengthen the highway network. In March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Sela Tunnel in strategically important Arunachal Pradesh. The cost of this project was Rs 825 crore. It is the longest two-lane tunnel in the world built at 13,000 feet.

In July PM Modi had launched the construction of the twin-tube 4.1 km long Shinkun La Tunnel on the Nimu-Padum-Darcha Road to provide round-the-clock connectivity to the northern borders with China. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the Atal Tunnel in October, 2020. It took 10 years to build this tunnel. It cost Rs 3,200 crore.