As much as we hate to write this, India, for its drivers, driving style, traffic issues, roads and road rage to an extent finds itself in a situation wherein our reputation precedes. And that’s not to say that we don’t have good, disciplined, safe drivers. A good amount of people have a good sense of driving and traffic behaviour and are a very safe pair of hands and feet behind a steering wheel. But, some, selected few go on creating a ruckus, wreaking havoc and that then, unfortunately, goes on to creating a general opinion.
More details
One such incident happened inside the Atal Tunnel. For the uninitiated, Atal tunnel is the highest tunnel in India located at a height of or elevation rather, of no less than 10,000 ft.
You don’t expect chaos there, do you? And you probably shouldn’t. The Atal tunnel was recently inaugurated by our Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and it was built to cut down travel time and ease lives. But, someone decided to do the opposite. Upon its inauguration, the Atal tunnel served as a pathway for a huge number of automobiles day in and day out. It’s a 9.02 km of all-weather tarmac that connects Manali to Lahaul Spiti. The Atal tunnel reduces the distance from Manali to Leh by around 46 kilometres. That might not sound much but go there and you will realise it saves as much as 5 hours of travel time.
View this post on Instagram
The incident
Talking about the incident, it is but obvious that stopping inside a tunnel is illegal, let alone something as big and high as the Atal Tunnel. Yet, a group of cars were stopped inside a tunnel by a group of tourists who did so to click some pictures, record some videos and dance to some music, inside a tunnel. A video of the same was captured and it went viral and subsequently reached the Himachal Pradesh police and then, they swung into action. The police arrested 7 tourists and seized 3 cars breaking rules and causing inconvenience.
It is said that the investigation probe is on and the police are delicately looking into this matter and that more people will be arrested soon regarding this issue. There’s a huge, huge difference between a good driver and a driver who drives good, isn’t there?