The long wait is finally over. India’s longest road tunnel is all set to be thrown open to public next month.

An engineering marvel, the nine-kilometre Nashiri tunnel located on the strategic Srinagar-Jammu National Highway will be dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 2.

Built at a cost of Rs 3,720 crore, the Nashri road tunnel will cut down the distance between Jammu and Srinagar cities by around 30 kilometres and will reduce the travel time by at least two hours.

“The trial run of the tunnel has been completed successfully. Sanitation and other small works are being carried out which will be completed before the inauguration,” MT Attarde, Project Director of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), told DNA.

With the Nashri tunnel, India joins the select league of countries who have adopted the state-of-the-art integrated tunnel control system (ITCS). The ITCS will ensure automatic control of tunnel lighting, ventilation, communication, fire control, vehicle monitoring et al. “The work was started in May 2011 and it has been completed in a record time,” said Attarde.