The country’s longest highway tunnel was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi on October 3, 2020, and the people started using it since then, the riders were eagerly waiting to get the chance to cross it. Many male riders has reached to the tunnel and crossed it, but not any female rider has done that. pooja
Pooja Yadav, a resident of Mathura, also had a dream to cross the Atal tunnel and she was aware of the fact that no female rider is planning to go solo to the tunnel, she decided to be the first female solo rider to grab the opportunity.
She started her journey at 1 AM (Midnight) between 8 and 9 October and she was at the other end after crossing the Atal tunnel at 9 am on 12 October. She covered distance of 1600 km on her Royal Enfield from Mathura to Atal tunnel.
It was a proud moment for her to be the first solo female biker in the world to cross the tunnel. Pooja, the first female bike rider to cross the Atal Tunnel has shown a great character and encouragement.
While riding solo, she reached Manali at 9 pm on October 11 and took a halt there. After that, she left Manali in the morning and crossed the tunnel at 9 am. She was about to return after registering her name in the history to be the first lady solo biker in the world to cross the tunnel, but it was closed for maintenance. The Atal tunnel remains closed every day between 9 to 10 AM and 4 to 5 pm for maintenance.
Pooja Yadav said that people are not obeying traffic rules in the Atal tunnel so there are accidents in the tunnel she works for road safety too. She went to the tunnel, riding solo with the promise of road safety and spread the message of safe riding to others as well.
An accident was about to happen with her too. Actually, while she was riding the bike with permitted speed in the tunnel, a person came with full throttle and overtakes her while that is not allowed in the tunnel.
Pooja Yadav, who has already done 12,000 km of solo rides in 18 states, tells that the southern part of the Atal tunnel is built at a height of 3060 meters, 25 kilometers from Manali, while the northern part is located at an altitude of 3071 meters near Taling, Sisu village in Lahaul valley. The horseshoe-shaped two-lane tunnel has an 8 meter wide road and has a height of 5.525 meters.
