The incredible 'new' £127m tunnel that cuts drivers' journeys by nine hours
The tunnel is one of the longest in South Asia and runs deep beneath a truly treacherous mountain range.
If you’re a daredevil driver wanting to spike your adrenaline on one of the world’s most dangerous roads then Pakistan’s Lowari Pass is a pretty good bet.
This twisty terror of a road is often packed with trucks with hairy hairpin bends that wind over cliffs more than 10,000 feet, connecting the regions of Chitral and Dir Upper within the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
What’s more, a deadly avalanche can come at any moment, without warning. And so it was pretty sensible to build a tunnel to bypass the route completely. The road above can take around nine hours - on a good day - but it takes just ten minutes to whizz through the tunnel below.
The Lowari Tunnel opened in 2018 actually consists of two separate tunnels and the combined length of both tunnels is 6.5 miles.
The total cost of the tunnel was £127m and it is one of the longest tunnels in South Asia - and is the longest in Pakistan overtaking the 2.43-mile Khojak Tunnel in 2018.
One Pakistan travel website - induscaravan.com - explained more about the experience of travelling through the tunnels.
It said: “For safety reasons, the passage of vehicles from both directions is controlled and you may have to wait in a long line.
“But compared to the past, when it was a feeling of endless time and effort used to climb and descend the Lowari Pass; or instances where a truck would be stuck on the way and unable to move or go around it, is no longer as big a problem.
“The anxiety caused by not knowing when, if ever, you would get out of the pass was eliminated by the tunnel.”
Don't miss...
Incredible map shows original Eurotunnel plans including 25 European cities [LATEST]
Incredible £16bn tunnel that's 15 miles long under world's 'most beautiful' city [REPORT]
Incredible £154m tunnel that goes through a mountain in beautiful country [LATEST]
However the Pakistan travel experts warned that although it’s much safer than the original pass, it can still be dangerous.
They added: “There are still cases where locals walked dangerously through the tunnel with their livestock, and when once you get out of the tunnel, the road is too muddy and the truck might get stuck again.”
Meanwhile, travel times of over an hour have been reduced to just 15 minutes following the construction of a series of incredible new tunnels connecting the Faroe Islands in the North Sea.
Previously, the only way to travel was by boat, which could take up to half a day depending on the weather, in an area where some say you can experience all four seasons in one day.
