Last year, OPERA measured that neutrinos were making the 454-mile (730-kilometer) underground trip between the two labs more speedily than light, arriving there 60 nanoseconds earlier than a beam of light would.
Preliminary talks have been held about a direct road link to China across the remote 76-kilometer (47-mile) border between the two countries, according to Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry.
The deadliest tunnel-fire incidents happened in 2001 in the 16.9 kilometer-long (10.5 miles) Gotthard tunnel when a crash involving two trucks caused a fire in the tunnel, killing 11 people.