FromDelhiToBombayViaTunnel

From Delhi to Mumbai via Tunnel

tinmoorthy

Professor Manickam was convinced. There was no doubt about it. "We need a tunnel urgently. Like the one between the K and France." "You need a channel first, before looking for a tunnel in the Lutyens' Delhi," I said. "So what?" thundered professor Manickam, "Let us construct a channel, if that is so important." "The tunnel is below the English Channel," I replied, trying to bring some sanity into his thinking. The professor retorted, instantaneously, "We shall then build a Hindustani Channel."

I tried to dissuade the professor, "A channel is meant to hold a mass of water." "We shall make history, young man! Make history, we shall. We will make a channel without water, if that escalates into an issue," declared the learned soul. "A tunnel should connect two countries, like India and Sri Lanka, for example," I added. "India and Sri Lanka deserve a setu (a bridge) and not a tunnel", retorted the professor. He explained further, "We do not need two distinct nations for constructing a tunnel. We can, if we so desire, plan such a facility within a country itself. That will be a revolution." Professor Manickam is considered to be a genius. That day, I understood precisely why.

"Which of the two towns in the country, for example, can you link?"

"Delhi and Mumbai, of course, what else?" declared the professor. I immediately conceded the bright idea. There are a dozen express trains and some ten flights between them every day. They are the only cities to host a telephone nigam. They have considerable traffic problems and what's more, they are getting worse. Mumbai and Delhi can do with more travel resources. The venture would be viable.

"We do not even need a waterway for constructing the tunnel," the professor beamed. "If there is to be a bridge, shouldn't there be water under it?" "Show me the waterways under the Andheri flyover, or under the ones at Chakala, Kemp's Corner, Safdarjung or at Hauz Khas", he demanded. I was silenced. The professor then unfolded his blueprint. I had never imagined that the professor meant serious business, until this moment. He said that the shortest route from Delhi to Mumbai was not by rail or air. I was curious to find out more.

"As you know, the shape of the earth is roughly spherical. Delhi and Mumbai are merely two points on the surface of the globe. The shortest route between them is right through the sphere, just like a worm would drill through the soil. That is to say, if the railroad follows the circular surface, the point-to-point short-cut pierces its way through the mass of the earth along the chord."

"Since the shortest route is not along the surface, it has to be constructed by drilling through the earth. That is how it is going to be a tunnel and it will be under the frequently-used rail tracks," he pointed out. I was levitated to dizzying heights when he declared that one need not expend aviation gasoline or diesel oil for travel through this tunnel. "Perhaps, I volunteered, you intend to promote Ramar Pillai petrol."

"After I patent my scheme, a small royalty will become mandatory. Otherwise, travel through my tunnel will be absolutely free. No fumes. No pollution. Completely environmentally friendly!" "How?" I inquired. "Because, as you enter the tunnel from Delhi, it would appear to be sloping downwards. Your vehicle, whatever may that be, will slide down the gradient and pick up speed according to the laws of gravity. The maximum velocity will be reached at the midpoint, approximately a few hundred kilometres below Jaipur. Thereafter, the tunnel will seem to be ascending, causing a retardation. The vehicle will slow down and come to a halt just at Mumbai!"

His scheme was brilliant. I was at a loss for words. The professor had made detailed plans for the ports at either end with inspection holes at a number of places in Rajastan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Giant blowers were to be planted at either end to guarantee circulation of fresh air. Fast food joints on the way, restrooms, maintenance shafts -- you name it and the professor had thought about it.

"It will take only fourteen  84 minutes to go from one end to the other, thanks to the gravitational force. You really will not need any restrooms or the like on the way, for the passengers. They will be required by people who aren't feeling well. The distance will be so short that you will hardly feel the journey. It is going to be more revolutionary than the Internet!" All I could say to him was: "Professor, you are the greatest!"
 
 

Post Script : Professor talked to lot of people. He held seminars and talk shows. He showed slides and video films. Nobody was ready to sponsor his project. I now know why we can not discover a Bill Gates here, after all! Prof was left to dig the tunnel with his bare hands.

I have not heard from him since long. Lately they have discovered some tunnels below his house in Vasantkunj, in Delhi. I am certain he is making progress. Slow, but steady.

I will not be surprised if he surfaces at Shivaji Park or Nariman Point, one day!
 
 
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Article: From Delhi to Mumbai via Tunnel,

Author: tinmoorthy, Number of comments: 8

8. tinmoorthy wrote on Dec 11, 2000 saying:

http://www.tufts.edu/~ndanie01/qm_paper.html

1. The concept of a chord (in a circle) being shorter than the arc segment is axiomatic. Variations surface when dimensions are added. As for example, "Space-time is curved. If we imagine two points on the surface of a sphere,in general we see the shortest distance between those points as a curved line traversing the surface of the sphere (a concept of the Great Circle, that is frequently heard in the Geometry text books). In reality, however, the shortest distance between the points is through the interior of the sphere by tunneling."

There is a lot more info on the tunnels for those who want to look for it. Some of the more interesting ones are listed further below.
 
 

http://forum.swarthmore.edu/dr.math/problems/leeds9.24.98.html

2. Rhumb Lines and Great Circle Routes : To a question from Ira Leeds about the shortest distance between two points, Doctor Rick answered : "I work out distances along rhumb lines and great circles. Straight lines would be so much easier - but hard to travel! Although the shortest line between New York and London is a straight line, you'd have to tunnel far below the surface of the earth to travel along it."
 
 

3. Whether you follow the chord or the Great Circle, the period (of oscillation for one cycle, taken like a simplependulum) is the same. This is another abstraction that develops again and again.

Chordal Motion : "For a homogeneous spherical airless body, the times for a low circular orbit and for one full period of motion along any straight chord are the same. For Earth, the low-orbit time is close to 84 minutes."

4. The seeming novelty of the short access impressed many from time to time. In the "Irish Week 2000 in Seattle", John Keane would state "Seattle-Galway Benchmark Project consists of a rock sculpture, created to acknowledge the formal ties of friendship between (them). The sculpture consists of a large stone bearing a bronze marker, with Galway's name, elevation, latitude, longitude, great circle distance, true bearing and time zone progression. Additionally, an angled facet on the side of the stone will be cut to the precise chord angle directed from Seattle toGalway, and another bronze marker will show that this chord angle indicates the shortest distance from Seattle to Galway through the earth."
 
 

http://www.projectparanormal.com/hollowearth/list_o.htm

http://members.tripod.com/XianRex/hollow/part7.htm

5. The Hollow Earth : A comprehensive list of Dr. Bernard's complete works is detailed in the former. "He died of pneumonia on September 10, 1965, while searching the tunnel openings to the interior of the Earth, in South America." The concepts of a Subterranean World and tunnels thereof appear to be favourite frequent themes for debates e.g., A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Jules Verne at -- [http://www.vt.edu/vt98/academics/books/verne/center_earth)

"The Russian explorer, Ferdinand Ossendowski (quoting again from the first reference), claims that tunnels which pass under the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, were built by men of the pre-glacial Hyperborean civilization. The chief mode of travel in this inner concave world, where the shortest distance between two points on its surface is a straight air line, (is) best traversed by means of flying saucers."
 

6. Travel is pervasive and not restricted to physical dimensions alone. Tunnels could become relevant for adventures through journeys in time, if one were to listen to the last named reference!

To an inquiring mind, "Is going back in time really possible? If so, would we have the resources to do it..say 100 years from now? How would you go about doing it?", the following hope was immediately forthcoming.

"The easiest way to do it would be with a worm-hole, a sort of "short cut" from one part of the universe to another. There are ways (in principle) of creating a worm-hole, so that if you went through it, you would be travelling back into the past. In any case, you would not be able to go back and change recorded history, since everything you do in the past must be consistent with the state of things in the future. Nor could anyone come back from the future to the present period, because you can only go as far back, using this method, as when the wormhole is first created. We also would not have this technology (if it is possible at all) for many thousands of years, I'm sure."
 
 

7. "What is a wormhole" then? "A wormhole (we need to understand) is a tunnel in space. For example, take a sheet of paper and mark two dots on it. Normally, a straight line is the shortest distance between these two points. But now bend the sheet of paper (in hyper-space, i.e. the third dimension), until these two dots touch. We now see that the shortest distance between these two dots is a wormhole. This, in turn, may give us the possibility of moving fantastic distances in space." (Dr. Kaku at mkaku@aol.com)
 
 

8. Substantial inputs on this tunnel theme are attributable to George Gamow. But (wh)Y Perelman? He is mentioned in the context of entertainment involving Mathematics, Astronomy and Physics. The quality of production and the contents of his books have been consistently and adorably excellent. He is known because of possible subsidy and flexible policies in the distribution of the book(s).

9. The provocation for a research on these tunnels came, in fact, from a newspaper report. A few years ago (non-Luray cavern type) tunnels were discovered inside a metro suburb Here was an opportunity for Vasantkunj to register itself in the International scene. The origin of the tunnels was fairly well speculated (though you may not get to hear the real story). Despite best such efforts, it is a pity, Vasantkunj did not make International headlines!

tinmoorthy -- 12 Dec 2000 Mon 1330 Hours

7 Chandru Narayan wrote on Nov 28, 2000 saying:

The professor's idea of connecting Delhi to Mumbai will be great if it can be sold to the dumb headed politicians. What do I get of the tunnel will be the question he will face in India. Dr. Visweshariah once envisaged a idea to connect the Ganges to South India which has chronic water shortages, since the ganges does flood twice a year causing devastation to all the places it flows through. I still think getting the Ganges to south India will be a easier feat, this will help Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka enjoy good water. Most good projects that took place in America were done during the great depression, India can use its pool of useless beggars and leeches of society to do the manual work. If every state participated in the project all the country will benefit. Well in India we do not and will never have great thinkers like Abe Lincoln or Washington. We admire people who die of sexually transmitted diseases or people who have scammed the country through BOFORS.

6 An anonymous reader wrote on Nov 28, 2000 saying:

We all read Y Perelman's 'Physics for Entertainment' when we were kids. An acknowledgement of the source would have been in order.

5 VK wrote on Nov 28, 2000 saying:

i believe it was a a book by mir publishers.it is just a straight lift...

4 An anonymous reader wrote on Nov 28, 2000 saying:

Amitabha, that's was one hell of a comment :-) Author, write more. Even if such thoughts mayn't seem practical but let's them hear them anyway.

3 b... wrote on Nov 28, 2000 saying:

Haha! nice article...fantasy, entertaining, light reading. I've a feeling you'll keep giving us better and better articles.

2 Srinath wrote on Nov 28, 2000 saying:

Heck, we'd already thought about it in high school after reading a book called "physics for entertainment." But ever thought of travelling in a train that is going downhill at such a great speed?

1 Amitabha Bagchi wrote on Nov 28, 2000 saying:

Dear Professor, I humbly beg to submit that your GPUMTS (Gravitationally Powered Underground Mass Transit System) be extended to include Poona and Patna. This would enable the JuhiChawlian thought experiment (Bambai se gai Poona, Poona se gai Dilli, Dilli se gai Patna) to become a reality and we would indeed become wayfarers of Love (rahi pyar ke.) Yours Sincerely, Amitabha

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