Top 10 Longest Rail and Road Tunnels of India
India is home to many fastest growing industries like mega structure of Civil work, whether its bridges, amazing cloverleaf or elevated freeway in Indian cities. Indian road and rail network are one of the largest transport network in the world and bridges,Tunnels play a major role to complete the connectivity across the country.
There are many longer tunnels under construction in the Himalayas ranges as part of Indian railway. Most of the tunnel in India are located in Western Ghat and Himalayas ranges. Maliguda Tunnel is the highest broad-gauge railway tunnel in India and the second highest in the world.
Longest Railway Tunnels of India:
Pir Panjal Tunnel – 11.2 km
The 11.2 km long Banihal railway tunnel is India’s longest railway tunnel and and Asia’s 2nd longest railway tunnel. The great tunnel is located on the highest mountain pass on the eastern Pir Panjal range in middle of Himalayas. Indian Railways is closer to finish the work on India’s longest transportation railway tunnel. The longest tunnel of India is successfully pass its train trial run through Pir Panjal tunnel.
Karbude Tunnel
Karbude Tunnel was the longest rail tunnel in India before Pir Panjal tunnel.The Karbude tunnel is 6.5 km long and one of the India’s biggest engineering marvels is located on the Konkan Railway route near Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. Karbude tunnel is known to be the longest rail tunnel on Konkan railway line situated between Ukshi and Bhoke station.
Natuwadi Tunnel
The second longest rail tunnel of Konkan Railway is situated between Karanjadi and Diwan Khavati station in the state of Maharashtra. The 4.3 km long tunnel was constructed on 1997 and comes under the Zonal railway of Konkan. Konkan Railway is one of the most beautiful train route in India, runs from Mangalore in Karnataka to Mumbai in Maharashtra through Goa,along the west coast of India and Western Ghats.
Tike Tunnel
The 4.0 km long Tike Tunnel is located at the western ghat region of Maharashtra,between Ratnagiri and Nivasar. Ratnagiri is the beautiful port city of Maharashtra and a part of amazing Konkan along with the Sahyadri mountains. Ratnagiri region well known for its different varieties of Mangoes and lush green scenery.
Berdewadi Tunnel
The 4.0 Km long Berdewadi railway Tunnel is located between Adavali to Vilawade train route in the Maharashtra state of India. Berdewadi Tunnel is also the part of Konkan Railway train route, along with other tunnels such as Savarde tunnel,Barcem tunnel of Goa and Karwar tunnel of Karnataka. Khowai tunnel of Tripura, Chowk tunnel of Maharashtra and Sangar Jammu and Kashmir are few different rail route tunnels of Indian railway.
Longest Road Tunnels in India:
Syama Tunnel (Chenani Nashri Tunnel) – 9.2 km
Chenani-Nashri Tunnel is the India’s longest road tunnel under construction in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir. The 9.2 km long road tunnel is a major road tunnel project in Northern India and biggest of the country. Chenani-Nashri road tunnel is also known as Patnitop Tunnel is also one of the longest tunnel in Asia. The Shivalik mountain range of the great Himalayas will host the India’s longest 2 way traffic road tunnel.
Atal Tunnel (Rohtang Tunnel) – 8.8 km
The Rohtang Tunnel is the World’s Highest Road Tunnel situated under the Rohtang Pass of eastern Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas on the Leh-Manali Highway in Himachal Pradesh. The 8.8 Km long two lane road tunnel is the second longest road tunnel of the country, situated at elevation of 3,978 meters above sea level and is expected to reduce the distance about 60 km between Manali and Keylong.
Banihal Qazigund Road Tunnel – 8.5 km (Under Construction)
The road tunnel at elevation of 1,790 m connecting Banihal and Qazigund in the Pir Panjal range has two lanes of road.
Ghat Ki Guni Tunnel
Ghat Ki Guni’ Tunnel in Jaipur, on on Jaipur Agara Highway is a 2.8 km long, that offers an alternative route to connect the Rajasthan capital with Agra in Uttar Pradesh.
Jawahar Tunnel
Banihal Tunnel also known as Jawahar Tunnel is a 2.5 Km long road tunnel under the Banihal pass, situated between Banihal and Qazigund in Jammu and Kashmir. One of the longest tunnel-road of India will connect Jammu to Kashmir Valley on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway at a height of 2194 m above sea level. After renovations, the tunnel is now facilitates with temperature sensors,CCTVs,ventilation system, emergency exit and a world-class lighting system.
Kamshet Tunnel
The Kamshet West-Tunnel or Kamshet I tunnel is 1.843 km long road network tunnel situated near Kamshet in Pune Maharashtra. The longest road tunnel in Maharashtra has 2 tubes with 3 lanes lies on amazing Mumbai Pune Expressway. The Mumbai Pune Expressway is the India’s first six-lane concrete tolled expressway with a distance of 93 km and one of the best too. Maharashtra will soon have the eight-kilometer-long tunnel, the second longest tunnel in the country that will connect Khopoli to Lonavla.
Bhatan Tunnel
Bhatan Tunnel on Mumbai-Pune Expressway is 1.0 KM long road tunnel with all the possible new technology. The Mumbai-Pune Expressway is the first six-lane concrete, high-speed, access controlled tolled expressway. The amazing expressway has reduced the travel time between the cities of Mumbai and Pune to approximately two hours. There are total 5 tunnel in Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Bhatan tunnel is one of the longest among them.
Other upcoming long tunnel project in India are A four-lane road tunnel on Jaipur-Agra highway, A eight-kilometer-long tunnel on Mumbai-Pune E-way in Maharashtra and a 24 Km long Yellow Line tunnel of Delhi Metro along with one tunnel in Chennai for Metro.
