SMEC given consultancy contract for Rohtang Tunnel

Shimla, May 3 (UNI) The consultancy contract for the multi crore Rohtang Tunnel project has been given to an Australian company, SMEC International Private Limited, head of the Deepak Project Krishan Pratap Singh said today.

''The works contracts will be awarded by the end of this year and work on the country's longest road tunnel project will being by next year,'' he said at a press conference here.

Mr Singh said the cost of constructing the tunnel had been projected at Rs 943.32 crore and building of the road up to the north end and the south end of the tunnel has been estimated at an additional Rs 180.30 crore.

The tunnel would have an length of 8.802 km and was designed to carry a traffic load at 80 km per hour and the tunnel was proposed to be completed by 2014, he said.

He said the tunnel would reduce the distance by 46 km besides providing round the year access to Lahual Valley that remained cut off from the rest of the country for six to seven months due to heavy snow.

The contractors have been asked to file technical bids for the prestigious project, he said.

The head of the Deepak Project said geological studies were being conducted and depending upon the rock structure, either the traditional drill and blast technique or the faster working boring machine would be employed to construct the tunnel, which was also of strategic interest to the defense forces.

If the contracting party deployed boring machines, the tunnel would be completed an year in advance, he said.

The Rohtang tunnel project has been envisaged to build an alternate year round link to Ladhak region of Jammu and Kashmir and was inaugurated by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in May 2002.

UNI