Amid Ladakh standoff, India inaugurates world's highest motorable road: 5 points

Union defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday inaugurated 24 bridges and three roads built by Border Roads Organisation to strengthen strategic capabilities of India. Among these projects is the Chisumle-Demchok road at Umling La Pass.

Union defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday inaugurated key infrastructure projects in India’s border areas to strengthen the country’s strategic capabilities. The inauguration was done through a virtual event in Delhi, amid a border standoff with China.

Umling La Pass, located in eastern Ladakh at an altitude of 19,300 feet above sea level, now has the world's highest motorable road.

The projects inaugurated by Rajnath Singh include 24 bridges and three roads built by Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in four states and two union territories.

Out of the 24 bridges, nine are in Jammu and Kashmir, five each in Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh, three in Uttarakhand and one each in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Of the three roads, two are in Ladakh and one in West Bengal.

The highlight was the Chisumle-Demchok road at Umling La Pass, which has been constructed at a height of over 19,000 feet in Ladakh.

Here is everything you need to know about the road:

• The Chisumle-Demchok road holds the Guinness World Record of world's highest motorable road.

• The black-topped, 52-kilometre road connects many important towns in the Chumar sector of Eastern Ladakh.

• It is located at a very strategic point as the villages that will be connected by the road are very close to the India-China border in the eastern sector. This road was constructed under Project Himank.

• According to government, the altitude of this road is higher than the base camps of Mount Everest. The South Base Camp in Nepal is situated at an altitude of 17,598 ft, while the North Base Camp in Tibet is at 16,900 feet.

• This road is much above the altitude of Siachen Glacier which is at 17,700 feet.