Monday, April 3, 2017

A couple of interesting news bytes.

1. The One from Jammu and Kashmir.

    The Prime Minister had dedicated the 9.2 km Chenani - Nashri road tunnel on 02 Apr. It's also
    known as the Patnitop Tunnel. It's in J&K on NH 44 (Former NH 1A) whose work had started in
    '11. Asia's longest tunnel boasts of a distance of 9.2 kms or 5.8 miles and was built at a cost of
    Rs. 3,720 crores. It has a fully integrated tunnel control system. Here're the vital statistics:-

       * Cuts the distance between Jammu and Srinagar to around 250 km from the earlier 350 km.
       * It connects Chenani in Udhampur district with Nashri in Ramban district.
       * As many as 1,500 engineers, geologists, skilled workers and labourers constructed this tunnel.
       * The all weather tunnel bypasses snowfall and avalanche prone areas in winter at places like
          Patnitop, Kud and Batote that obstruct NH 44 causing long queues of vehicles, at times
          for days at length.
       * Has 2 tubes that run parallel to each other. The main traffic tunnel of diameter 13 mts and a
          separate safety/escape tunnel of diameter 6 mts alongside.
       * The two tubes - each about 9 km long - are connected by 29 cross passages at regular intervals
          of 300 mts along the entire length of the tunnel.

     Surely an engineering marvel that will enhance communications and trade towards the betterment
     of the people of that state!

2. The Other One from Leicester, England.

     A couple who enjoyed 71 happy years of marriage died within 4 mts of each other.

       * Wilf Russel(93) took his final breath at Magna Care Homes in Wigston at 0650 hrs last
          Wednesday. He was suffering from dementia for the past year.
       * Four minutes later, three miles away at Leicester Royal Infirmary, his 91 year old wife, Vera
          was pronounced dead.

     She'd gone to visit him a few months back and he didn't recognise her at all. Her health started
     deteriorating from that day.
 
     Wilf met Vera when he was 18 and she was 16. They got engaged before he went to North Africa
     and Italy, with the RAF, during the Second World War.

     Surely, this is what eternal love is all about!


Tailpiece.

We went for the matinee show of the Mammootty starrer, 'The Great Father'. A nice story of a father-daughter relationship and the film deals with 'child abuse' which is on a rising graph, of late.

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