Tunnels in India

Tunnels in India

Tunnels of India are mostly rail tunnels around the Western Ghats of India, the remarkable mountain range with excellent railway connectivity, facilitating the communication with shorter distances, although they are long enough to amaze anyone with the wonderful workmanship gone into it. Ten out of 16 such long tunnels are developed by Konkan railways in 1997.

The Tunnel constructions have been ongoing process with Indian Railways and recently, the longest tunnel among them has been completed in Himalayas range with Pir Panjal Railway Tunnel covering 11.2 km long distance, formed in Jammu and Kashmir State.

There are quite a few road tunnels which claim importance of their own characteristics and all these tunnels are amazing spots to visit.

Major Tunnels in India

If one takes account of long tunnels which are 2000 metres or more, one would come across at least 16 of them, as under:

1. Earliest of all the long railway tunnels in India is Saranda was constructed in 1900 by South Eastern Railway, covering a distance of 2000 metres between Goilkhera and Saranda Halt Stations, which is now in Jharkhand State region.
2. The Central Railway had laid a 2156 meter long Monkey Hill Tunnel in 1982 which lies in Maharashtra State. Again, in 2006 they constructed another Tunnel in the same state, which is Chowk tunnel starting from Panvel and ending in Karjat Station covering 2830 meter distance.
3. The Konkan Railways had constructed 10 long tunnels of following description in 1997, most of them lying in Maharashtra State with one each in Goa and Karnataka States.




No.	Name	Length in mtrs	From Station	To Station
1	Karbude	6506	Ukshi	Bhoke
2	Nathuwadi	4389	Karanjadi	DiwanKhavati
3	Tike	4077	Ratnagiri	Nivasar
4	Berdewadi	4000	Adavali	Viliwade
5	Savarde	3429	Kamathe	Savarde
6	Barcem	3343	Balli	Canacona
7	Kanwar	2950	Kanwar	Harwada
8	Panchuri	2626	Sangameswar	Ukshai
9	Aravali	2100	Aravali	Sangameshwar
10	Chiplun	2033	Chiplun	Kamathe





4. The Northern Railways has constructed the Sangar Tunnel of 2445 meter length in 2005 which is in Jammu and Kashmir State.
5. The North Eastern Railway has constructed in 2008 another Tunnel in Tripura State, which is Khowai with a length of 2472 metres.
6. Latest of the lengthytunnels in India is Pir Panjal Railway Tunnel measuring 11,215 metres, from Banihal Station to Hillar Shahabad Station, lying in Jammu and Kashmir State, which was completed in 2013.

Five longest Tunnels of India

There are 5 tunnels which are considered big and acclaimedworldwide as special and superior. They are

• Rohtang Tunnel, which is a road tunnel of 46 km distance piercing through Greater Himalayas in Leh Manali Highway
• Jawahar Tunnel, one of the longest tunnels extending 2 ½ kilometer distance in Jammu and Kashmir
• Maliguda Tunnel, the broad-gauge railway tunnel laid in highest elevation, constructed at the top of the hill at Maliguda village in Orissa State, which is known as the second highest Tunnel in the World
• Karbude Tunnel, the 6 ½ km long tunnel in Maharashtra State, which is a railway tunnel in Maharashtra State.
• Bhatan Tunnel in Mumbai Pune Expressway, a tunnel 1 km long, which is special because it is in the 6 lane highway of special importance.

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