Defence ministry clears the BRO tunnel under Shinkun La in Ladakh

Defence minister Rajnath Singh took a decision in favour of shorter 4.5km tunnel proposal of Border Roads Organisation but the order could not be issued as all the top officials involved in the project were hit by coronavirus.

Published on: May 19, 2021, 15:55:01 IST

By Shishir Gupta, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

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Cutting through the red-tape, the Union defence ministry has decided to ask the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to build a 4.25-kilometre tunnel under the 5,091-metre-high Shinkun La pass to make an all-weather axis from Manali to Leh via Darcha-Padun-Nimmu alignment to supply Indian Army formations in Ladakh sector. The snow-free axis is expected to be completed by 2024.

The proposed 4.25-kilometre tunnel under the 5,091-metre-high Shinkun La pass will create all-weather axis from Manali to Leh via Darcha-Padun-Nimmu alignment to supply Indian Army formations in Ladakh sector. (HT graphics)

According to South Block officials, defence minister Rajnath Singh and top officials decided in favour of the BRO proposal instead of National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), which was recommending an altogether new road alignment with a 13.5km tunnel under Shinkun La.

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“Both BRO and NHIDCL made presentations before the minister in March 2021. After studying both the proposals, the defence ministry has decided in favour of shorter tunnel. The decision could not be put on the paper as a number of senior officials involved in this project were hit by Covid-19 infection,” said a top official. The NHIDCL has been preparing detailed project report of the project since 2017, much before the Chinese Army transgressed into Ladakh in May 2020.

It is understood that the total cost of the BRO tunnel construction will be around ₹1,000 crore due to simple design and requirement of basic electromechanical fittings. The 4.25km tunnel will have longitudinal ventilation using banana fans, which require minimum electricity and operational costs.

The Darcha-Padum-Nimmu road is 297-kilometre long with 100km already converted into double lane and black-topped by the BRO last year at the height of India-China border skirmish. While the distance between Manali and Leh will remain the same with the new road, the axis will remain totally snow-free round the year allowing movement of both troops and equipment to feed Ladakh, Kargil and Siachen sectors.

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The present Manali-Sarchu-Upshi-Leh road goes over four high mountain passes of around 5,000-metre in height even after construction of Atal tunnel under Rohtang pass and remains snowed for at least two to three months during winter.

The four passes on present Manali-Leh route are: Baralacha La (16500 feet), Nakee La (15547 feet), Lachung La (16616 feet) and Tanglang La (17480 feet).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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