"A massive public rally will be addressed by the Prime Minister at Udhampur on April 2," BJP MLA and the party's state unit chief Sat Sharma told reporters.
About the Nashri Tunnel:
- The 'Nashri Tunnel' in Chenani, falling in the Udhampur district, will lessen the travel time between the two state capitals -- Jammu and Srinagar -- by two-and-a-half hours and prove to be of great importance to the state.
- The work on the 9.2 km twin-tube tunnel, which is part of a 286-km-long four-lanning project on the highway, started in May 2011 in lower Himalayan range.
- It cost Rs 3,720 crore.
- It will be installed with CCTV cameras.
- Located at an elevation of 1,200 meters, the tunnel will be the first in the country to be equipped with world-class "integrated tunnel control system" through which ventilation, fire control, signals, communication and electrical systems will be actuated automatically.
- Air-vents, will be controlled through softwares.
- The road distance from Chenani and Nashri will now be 10.9 km, instead of the existing 41 km.
- The tunnel project will be handed over to National Highway Authority of India by IL&FS soon after the inauguration.
- It has 29 escape routes to be used only during emergency.
- Escape tunnel will automatically lit up once anyone will step inside it.
"The formal trial run was successfully completed for peak, off-peak hours between March 9 and March 15," Project Director, IL&FS, J S Rathore had said.
Additional benefit of Nashri Tunnel:
Once the tunnel becomes operational, it will reduce traffic jams on National Highway-1 A that occur due to snowfall and avalanches in winter at Patnitop, he said.