Border infra projects top priority, work on third route to Leh in full swing

At present, there are three routes to reach Leh, the first being via Srinagar-ZojiLa-Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir.

The second is through Manali-Rohtang in Himachal Pradesh. This road splits at a place called Darcha, from where one route connects to Leh via Padam and Nimu, and the other goes across mountain passes Baralacha La in Himachal Pradesh and Tanglang La in Ladakh via Karu before connecting to Leh.

At present, both these routes to Leh don’t have all-weather connectivity.

The Srinagar-Leh and the Baralacha La-Karu-Leh are the old traditional routes to reach Leh.

Senior officials familiar with the projects said connecting a 4-kilometre uncut portion of the Nimu-Padam-Darcha road and beginning the construction work on the 4.1 km long twin tube Shinku La tunnel on the Manali-Darcha-Padam-Nimu axis are among construction works listed under the BRO’s immediate to-do list.

Work on connecting the 4-km long uncut part of the Nimu-Padam-Darcha road is on the verge of completion and a majority portion of the road has already been blacktopped. The remaining work is slated to be completed within the next few weeks.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had during his visit to Drass in July launched the construction of the Shinkun La Tunnel project. Officials said full-fledged work on the tunnel—set to be world’s highest tunnel at 15,800 feet—is set to begin in the next few weeks.

To be constructed at a cost of Rs 1,681 crore, the tunnel will significantly cut short the distance between Manali and Leh by 60 km. It will ensure connectivity to the 4km long uncut part of the Nimu-Padam-Darcha road. This will be the third all-weather route, an alternative to the other two other older routes to Leh.

As per officials, establishing connectivity to one of the roads running parallel to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh is also a key priority project of the BRO.

Aside from the existing 255 km long Durbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie (DS-DBO) road, two other roads run parallel to the LAC in different locations. These are a road connecting Leh and Demchok via Karu and Nyoma and another connecting Durbuk to Nyoma via Chushul which lies south of the Pangong Tso lake.

An official said establishing connectivity to the Leh-Demchok road in eastern Ladakh has been accorded priority and much of the construction work on this road has been completed. There are plans to eventually double lane these roads.

All these are aimed at developing a robust border infrastructure in the Ladakh region and establishing better connectivity to the LAC.

Since 2020, the pace of border infrastructure construction in the Ladakh region, as well as in the Northeast has gone up exponentially. In the last four years, significant progress in the construction of roads, bridges, habitat, tunnel, ammunition depots among other infrastructure work have been carried out in these regions to enable faster troop mobility to the LAC in case of an operational situation.

This is also reflected in the works budget allocated to the BRO this fiscal, which saw a 30 per cent hike from last year to Rs 6,500 crore this year.

The BRO has also listed four roads which it seeks to complete under the first two phases of the ICBR project. These include three roads totalling 330.95 km and another road at Surwa Samba—the last border post at India-China border near Zemithang—under the second phase of ICBR. All the four roads listed are in Arunachal Pradesh.

Conceptualised in the late 1990s by the China Study Group, the ICBR programme was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security for construction in 1999. A total of 73 strategic roads measuring 4,643 km had to be constructed along the India-China border under the first two phases of the ICBR programme, of which 61 were to be constructed by the BRO and 12 by the Central Works Public Department.

These roads are spread across Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

An official said that for the next few months, BRO is to submit the detailed project reports of 14 roads totalling 320.71 km under ICBR phase III. These include critical link roads to LAC in eastern Ladakh, such as a road connecting Chushul-Lukung to Thakung, DS-DBO road track junction, Gapshan to DS-DBO road and border roads in Arunachal Pradesh such as Tuting-Murbo-Bane and Bishing-Tinali area, among others.

As per the BRO, progressing on the nearly 1,800-km-long frontier highway in Arunachal Pradesh is also among its key priorities in the next few months. The highway will connect Bomdila, Nafra, Huri and Vijaynagar close to the Myanmar border and central funds worth over Rs 6,000 crore were allocated earlier this year for construction of certain portions of the highway.

Work on the 2.79 km long Sungal tunnel on Akhnoor-Poonch National Highway in Jammu and Kashmir, and achieving full connectivity to the Lipulekh Pass lying on the India-China border on the Mansarovar Yatra road are projects the BRO is taking up on priority.

The breakthrough blast of the Sungal tunnel on National Highway 144A was carried out in May this year. As per the BRO, the blast culminates the excavation of the tunnel which on completion will facilitate travel through hill sections, reducing time and distance to reach Rajouri and Poonch.

In May 2020, defence minister Rajnath Singh had inaugurated the link road connecting Dharchula in Uttarakhand almost to the Lipulekh Pass at the India-China border for pilgrims travelling to Kailash Mansarovar. Construction of the road is complete at several stretches and the rest of the work is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

Pilgrims from India can also reach Kailash Mansarovar through Sikkim and Kathmandu in Nepal aside from Uttarakhand.