Around the time of the inauguration of the Atal Tunnel in October 2020, there were claims that Lata Thakur had been instrumental in initiating the idea of building a tunnel under the Rohtang Pass, so as to provide the Lahaul valley with round-the-year road connectivity. The claims were that she had talked to Indira Gandhi of this need on one of the PM's visits to the Lahaul and Spiti district during Lata's tenure as MLA, and that the chain of events set-off by this discussion had materialised several decades later in the form of the Atal Tunnel.
