Sela tunnel to help boost army’s posture near China border

The upcoming inauguration of the Sela tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh, exactly five years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid its foundation stone in February 2019, signals a monumental enhancement in the army’s logistical prowess in the strategic Tawang sector where Indian soldiers hold posts close to the contested border with China, said Lieutenant General Harpal Singh (retd), who oversaw critical phases of the project as the head of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO).

Modi is soon expected to inaugurate the tunnel, the world’s longest twin-lane tunnel above 13,000 feet, officials aware of the matter said on Monday. It will allow faster deployment of weapons, soldiers and equipment to forward areas near the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the officials added.

The tunnel has been constructed at a cost of ₹700 crore on the Balipara-Charduar-Tawang road. “It will offer a fortified, expeditious, and dependable conduit for troop mobilisation, equipment conveyance, and vital supplies distribution,” said Singh, who was BRO’s director general during 2018-20.

The project is significant as winter connectivity to Tawang over the 14,000-foot pass, Sela, posed a logistics challenge for the army for decades, with the movement of men, weapons and stores severely affected for three to four months every year. The tunnel will cut travel time to Tawang by at least one hour as well as provide all-weather connectivity.

The tunnel will allow the army to mount swifter responses to security challenges and assert a more resolute presence in the forward areas, said Singh. The conventional road route over Sela was prone to prolonged inaccessibility due to inclement weather and treacherous topography, he said.

India’s infrastructure push along its farthest frontiers is a firm and focussed response to China’s thrust on developing its border areas and has supported the military’s pursuit of robust deterrence against the neighbour with whom the country has been locked in a dragging standoff in eastern Ladakh since May 2020.

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Things are quieter along the LAC in the east, but the army’s operational readiness is at its highest level. “Sela remains snowbound in the winters, cutting off areas to the north of it from the rest of the country. The tunnel will enable the Indian armed forces to move and sustain themselves much better,” said Lieutenant General SL Narasimhan (retd), a China expert and former member of the National Security Advisory Board.

The Sela project consists of Tunnel 1, which is 980 metres long, and Tunnel 2, a 1,555-metre twin-tube tunnel. The tunnels have come up through two ridges west of Sela. The project also includes two roads, measuring 7km and 1.3km. Tunnel 2 has one bi-lane tube for traffic, and one escape tube for emergencies. Only tunnels longer than 1,500 metres need to have an escape passage alongside.

The civilian population will also benefit from the new route, the experts said.

“The tunnel is a beacon of transformative progress, promising myriad benefits to the local population. It brings in a new era of secure and faster transportation, mitigating perils inherent to traversing rugged terrain,” Singh said.

The tunnel will also serve as a catalyst for socioeconomic advancement, granting people easier access to markets, health care facilities, educational institutions, and other indispensable amenities, he said.

The tunnel was expected to be completed two years ago, but was delayed due to prolonged winters slowing down construction activity and technical aspects such as delay in concrete setting inside the tunnel.

At least 50 specialist engineers and hundreds of BRO workers were involved in the construction of the Sela tunnel using latest Austrian tunneling techniques, which involved observing and studying the rock, and designing tunnel support according to rock behaviour.

Last year, India set up of a top committee to fast-track infrastructure projects in areas close to the China border.

The projects being executed in forward areas involve several ministries including defence,road transport and highways,environment, forest and climate change, railways and communications, and power and new and renewable energy.

The secretaries of these ministries form part of the committee that monitors the progress of different projects. China has an edge over India in border infrastructure, but the country is catching up fast with the neighbour on the back of speedy execution of strategic projects to support military operations, increased spending, and focussed adoption of technology and techniques.