Link to good times: Atal Tunnel spawns tourist rush to Lahaul and Spiti

Every day, about 4,000 vehicles now drive through the tunnel that bypass Rohtang La

The 9.02-km Atal Tunnel, the longest in the world above 10,000 feet, has opened up new tourism opportunities for the people of Lahaul and Spiti Valley as well as Ladakh.
 

Every day, about 4,000 vehicles go via the tunnel that cuts through the mountain to bypass the 13,058-ft-high Rohtang Pass.

This roughly translates to about 16,000 visitors every day — more than 50 per cent of the total population of the district (31,564).
 

Before the tunnel was inaugurated, only about 2,000 people used to cross over to Lahaul and Spiti via Rohtang Pass every month between April and September. Most of them would be the locals. At 3,978 metres, Rohtang Pass was a major tourist attraction but also an obstacle, and it would be open for only six months in a year.
 

About 3 million tourists visit Kullu-Manali each year. Only one per cent cross over from Rohtang Pass to go to the other side.

That has changed in the last two months.
 

Kullu Superintendent of Police Gaurav Singh says, “On December 27, 5,700 vehicles crossed the tunnel to the other side. The capacity of the tunnel is 6,000 vehicles per day. More than 22,000 people crossed over to Lahaul and Spiti that day — close to two months of traffic on the route in the previous years.” He adds, “This technological wonder (the tunnel) has made it possible.”
 

Earlier, the road journey from Manali to Keylong (the administrative centre of the Lahaul and Spiti district), while thrilling, was also treacherous.
 

Sanjay Thakur, president of Kullu Bar Association who would often head to Spiti, says, “Earlier, we used to keep an oxygen cylinder in case of altitude sickness on the patch between Manali and Rohtang. The taxi drivers would also be equipped with oxygen in case a tourist faced breathing issues. Now it has become a relatively easy ride.”

 

Not just tourists, farmers and vegetable growers, too, have benefited from the tunnel. Pritam Rashpa, a farmer from Lahaul, says, “The problems that we earlier faced in transporting the locally grown cabbage, green peas, hops and sea buckthorn, etcetera, have now been resolved.” Sudershan Jaspa, chairman, Lahaul Potato Society, adds, “We now save close to four hours of travel time; the transportation cost, too, has come down.”
 

“The tunnel,” adds Jaspa, “is also a boon for the locals who may face health issues during winter. Earlier, the only option was to airlift the patient.”
 

In winter, the high mountainous passes made the region inaccessible.
 

“Lahaul is close to Alaska, if one estimates its tourism potential,” says Aditya Gehlaut, who is based in Vancouver and visited the region recently. “Had there been some good hotels, I would have loved to stay back.”
 

There is hope that the tunnel will spawn the region’s tourism industry and new hotels, restaurants, homestays and shops will come up.
 

While happy about the tunnel, Rashpa, the farmer from Lahaul, is concerned about the increasing garbage. The state government, he feels, was short-sighted. State tourism hotels or guest houses should have been developed alongside the Atal Tunnel, he feels. Now tourists are coming in thousands. “And they are throwing plastic bottles and other non-biodegradable plastic stuff unmindfully,” he says.
 

Rattan Raj Negi, a local from Pattan Valley, echoes this sentiment. “We are slowly getting used to traffic jams, garbage, and pollution.” But, on a positive note, he adds, “The tunnel has put an end to the winter migration of the natives.”