It's a single-day record: 3950 vehicles cross Rohtang Tunnel
Shimla: Planning a summer trip to Kullu-Manali! Just be sure to visit the world's longest tunnel –Atal Rohtang Tunnel, which is creating a new record of vehicles crossing this landmark tunnel each day.
On Saturday, the tunnel recorded the highest traffic of 3,950 vehicles in a single day this year.
This was the first time, after December 2020, that the Tunnel facilitated the seamless movement of such a huge number of tourists and other vehicles going to Lahaul-Spiti and also returning back via the Tunnel.
The 13,059 feet high Rohtang Pass since still remains closed due to heavy snow, the Tunnel has turned a lifeline for the people of Lahaul-Spiti and is the biggest tourist attraction in Kullu-Manali.
A police spokesman said "we are trying to make the travel via Rohtang Tunnel a memorable experience for the tourists. The tunnel in intself is an engineering marvel in India as being located at a height of 10,000 feet."
The tunnel's earlier record of single day traffic movement is 5,000 vehicles in December 2020 when the new year revellers had also created some problems enroute by stopping their vehicles inside the tunnel and taking it to dancing.
The police had acted promptly and lodged FIRs.
When asked about handling the tourists influx in the summers, Gaurav Singh, SP (Kullu), said the police will enforce a new traffic plan to ensure that no harassments were caused to the tourists and also the regulatory mechanism works seamlessly.
By then, Rohtang Pass may also open for the traffic.
The traffic movement data of Sunday was a total of 3240 vehicles crossing the tunnel, of which 1,655 were from Manali to Keylong.
The Rohtang Tunnel, named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2020. The Tunnel has reduced a distance of 44 km between Manali and Leh and provides an all weather connectivity to Lahaul-Spiti, which used to remain cut-off for almost six months due to closure of Rohtang Pass in the winters due to massive snowfall.
It's due to the Rohtang Tunnel that Manali hoteliers have been getting good business in the post lockdown period.
Anil Kant, a hotelier at Manali admits "there have been some drop during February as compared to December and January months, we expect a good summer season. Only fear is about fresh spread of Coronavirus cases for which the hoteliers have been told to guide the tourists to wear masks and follow social distancing."
