Light at the end of the tunnels: India set for big security, transport boost

It was at Zoji La that the Indian Army scored one of its finest victories in the 1947-48 J&K campaign. It took back the 11,600-ft pass from Pakistan in November 1948, in a bold assault called Operation Bison. Tanks were used in war at those heights for the first time anywhere in the world then.

The traditional Srinagar-Leh axis is one of the two existing routes to Leh -- the other being the Manali-Leh road. Neither is currently all-weather, and both remain shut for five to six months in the winter, presenting a logistics nightmare both for the armed forces and the civil administration, and impeding socioeconomic development of the Ladakh region, the officials said.

India’s infrastructure push to provide year-round connectivity to the Ladakh region will get another boost in three years when the route from Manali to Leh via the Nimmu-Padam-Darcha axis will be functional, the officials added. This will be the third route to Leh.

In July 2024, Modi carried out the “first blast” for the Shinku La tunnel in Ladakh, aimed at providing all-weather connectivity from Manali to Leh via the Nimmu-Padam-Darcha axis. The “first blast” was significant as it marked the beginning of the tunnel’s construction by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), which is at the centre of India’s forward infrastructure push.

The tunnel at 15,800 ft, expected to be ready in 2028, will be the world’s highest, surpassing China’s Mila tunnel at 15,590 ft.

The 4.1-km long Shinku La tunnel will cut the distance between Manali and Leh by 60km, bringing it down from 355km to 295km. The Nimmu-Padam-Darcha road is strategically important as it is shorter than the other two axes, and crosses only one pass --- the 16,615-ft high Shinku La. The military’s readiness, among other things, depends on infrastructure in forward areas -- a landscape dotted with towering mountains, valleys and rivers.

All-weather connectivity to Ladakh is critical as the region is currently totally cut off from the rest of the country for several months in the winter, said strategic affairs expert Lieutenant General Harpal Singh (retd).

“It is as critical for swift military mobilisation in an exigency as it is for the region’s integration and socio-economic development. It will help arrest the region’s demographic shift caused by people moving to the lower hills because of poor connectivity. Maintenance costs will also go down as there will be no need to stock for the winters,” Singh added.

Seamless movementBuilt at a cost of over ₹2,717 crore by National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), a company fully owned by the union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) -- the Z-Morh (named after a Z-shaped bend) tunnel at a height of 8,652ft will ensure uninterrupted traffic flow between Srinagar and Ladakh year-round, bypassing avalanche-prone areas and providing a secure route for travellers, the MoRTH officials said.

It will facilitate seamless movement of local agricultural goods from Srinagar to Leh, significantly reducing travel time to 15 minutes from at least two hours. This bidirectional, 6.4-km tunnel features a parallel escape tunnel for enhanced safety. The tunnel project includes a 3.7km creeper lane for heavily loaded vehicles, a 4.6km western approach road, a 0.9km eastern approach road, two major bridges, and one minor bridge.

Other than facilitating seamless movement of local agricultural goods from Srinagar to Leh for locals and the overall supply chain for the armed forces, this road will also promote winter and religious tourism through enhanced access to Sonamarg and other destinations, the officials said.

The Z-Morh tunnel, along with the completion of Zoji La tunnel, will reduce the travel time from Srinagar to Leh by three-and-a-half hours.

The Z-Morh tunnel project, originally planned in 2005, was to be built by the BRO. But later the project was transferred to NHIDCL in 2016 after the BRO project failed to take off through BOT (build-operate-transfer) mode based on a detailed project report prepared in 2013. NHIDCL took up the project in EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) mode with Modi laying the foundation stone in May 2018.

With the inauguration of the Z-Morh tunnel, out of the 33 tunnels planned in the J&K in the recent years, 15 are ready and another 18 are under construction, HT has learnt.

Racing to reshape the strategic landscape of Ladakh, where China’s predatory conduct and military ambitions led to the lingering border spat, India is also on the verge of completing an ambitious project to provide much-needed alternative connectivity to Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO), India’s northernmost military base near the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The construction of the 130-km road from Sasoma in the Nubra Valley to DBO near the Karakoram Pass is about to be completed. The existing 255-km Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi (DS-DBO) road runs close to the LAC. Sasoma and Darbuk can be reached from Leh via two different road axes.

Last March, Modi dedicated the Sela tunnel project in Arunachal Pradesh to the country, with the infrastructure upgrade putting military mobility and logistics support for the army in the strategic Tawang sector in the fast lane.

It is the world’s longest twin-lane tunnel above 13,000 feet. The new route provides all-weather connectivity and allows quicker deployment of weapons, soldiers and equipment to forward areas near the LAC. The BRO has built the tunnel on the road connecting Tezpur in Assam to Tawang in Arunachal’s West Kameng district.