CDS (II) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 87 of 120

Correct — C, Manali to Leh. The Atal Tunnel runs under the Rohtang pass in Himachal Pradesh, carrying the Manali-Leh road through the eastern Pir Panjal instead of over it. It is 9.02 kilometres long, was built by the Border Roads Organisation, and was inaugurated on 3 October 2020, having been renamed after Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2019. The gain is both distance and dependability: the Manali-Keylong stretch falls from about 116 kilometres by the old route over Rohtang to about 71 kilometres, cutting several hours off the journey, and more importantly the Lahaul valley no longer loses its road link for months each winter when the pass closes. That year-round access to the first leg of the Manali-Leh road is why the tunnel matters strategically as well as commercially.

• (a)Bagdogra to Gangtok — The Bagdogra-Gangtok road runs up the Teesta valley in the eastern Himalaya and has no tunnel of this kind; its recurring problem is landslides rather than a snowbound pass.
• (b)Jammu to Srinagar — This is the strongest wrong option, because the Jammu-Srinagar highway does have major tunnels — the Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee tunnel at Chenani-Nashri and the Banihal Qazigund tunnel. Neither of them is the Atal Tunnel, which is in Himachal Pradesh.
• (d)Itanagar to Tawang — At the time of this examination the road to Tawang still crossed the Sela pass in the open. The Sela tunnel on that route was opened only in March 2024, more than two years later.

High-altitude road tunnels in India are built to take a route under a pass that closes with snow, converting a seasonal road into an all-weather one. The engineering constraints are altitude, unstable ground, water ingress and a short working season, and the payoff is measured less in kilometres saved than in months of the year the road stays open. The same logic drives the Zojila tunnel under construction on the Srinagar-Leh road and the Sela tunnel on the road to Tawang.

This was a current-affairs item when the paper was set, roughly a year after the tunnel opened, and it is worth separating what was true then from what is true now. The Atal Tunnel's record is a carefully qualified one — the longest highway single-tube tunnel above 10,000 feet — and it is not India's longest road tunnel, a title that at the time of this paper belonged to the Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee tunnel at 9.28 kilometres in Jammu and Kashmir. Since then the Sela tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh, 12.04 kilometres, opened in March 2024 and made option (d) something that would need a second look if the same question were asked today. The one thing that has not changed is that the Atal Tunnel serves the Manali-Leh road.

• The Atal Tunnel is 9.02 kilometres long and runs under the Rohtang pass through the eastern Pir Panjal range in Himachal Pradesh.
• It was inaugurated on 3 October 2020 and was built by the Border Roads Organisation.
• It brings the Manali-Keylong distance down from about 116 kilometres to about 71 kilometres and gives the Lahaul valley year-round road access.
• Its record is the qualified one of the longest highway single-tube tunnel above 10,000 feet, not the longest highway tunnel in the world.
• The Sela tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh, 12.04 kilometres, opened on 9 March 2024 on the road towards Tawang.

• Calling the Atal Tunnel the world's longest highway tunnel; its record is the qualified one for a single-tube tunnel above 10,000 feet.
• Assuming it is India's longest road tunnel, which it was not when this paper was set.
• Placing it on the Jammu-Srinagar highway because that road also has long tunnels.

As a project-to-route identification, as a which-is-longest comparison among Indian tunnels, or as a pass-to-range match.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Atal Tunnel passes beneath which one of the following passes?

  • (a)Zojila
  • (b)Rohtang
  • (c)Baralacha La
  • (d)Nathu La

  Answer(b) Rohtang — the tunnel takes the Manali-Leh road under the pass, keeping the Lahaul valley connected through the winter.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Atal Tunnel was inaugurated in which one of the following years?

  • (a)2017
  • (b)2019
  • (c)2020
  • (d)2022

  Answer(c) 2020 — it was opened on 3 October 2020, having been renamed after Atal Bihari Vajpayee the previous year.