NEW DELHI: In a bid to minimize traffic snarls caused by VVIP movement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may frequently go ‘underground’ to get airborne. Confused? The PM will increasingly use a substantially underground tunnel built between his Race Course Road residence and Safdarjung Airport from where he will take choppers for flying to nearby places.

The work on the tunnel is reportedly complete almost four years after the project was conceptualized. Since the PM routinely drives to Safdarjung Airport, the idea was to have a secure access to the airport from the Prime Minister’s house. Also, the tunnel is to serve as an emergency evacuation route.

The by-road surface distance route from PM House to Safdarjung Airport is about 3km and passes via Kemal Ataturk Road, Safdarjung Road and Aurobindo Marg. It is learnt that the work on the tunnel is now over. The entire project was conceived and implemented by the PM’s security wing. TOI had first reported about it in June 2010.

The proposed new link is learnt to be partially underground — from PM house to beyond Kemal Ataturk Marg — and then an overground drive to the chopper hangar behind the Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan.