New Delhi: Border Roads Organisation (BRO) connected the strategic Nimmu-Padam-Darcha road in Ladakh on March 25, 2024. This 298-km road will connect Manali to Leh through Darcha and Nimmu on the Kargil – Leh Highway. The road is now the third axis apart from Manali-Leh and Srinagar-Leh which connects Ladakh to the hinterland.
The Nimmu-Padam-Darcha road derives its strategic importance from the fact that it is not only shorter vis-a-vis the other two axes, but crosses only one pass; Shinkun La (16,558 feet) on which tunnel work is about to commence by the BRO. This will result in the road having all-weather connectivity to the Ladakh region. The connectivity will strengthen the defense preparedness and provide a boost to the economic development in the Zanskar Valley.
DG Border Roads Lt Gen Raghu Srinivasan said that in January, when the River Zansakar was frozen, the equipment and personnel were mobilized and the work of establishing the connectivity was completed. He exuded confidence that the work on blacktopping the road would start soon. With the construction of the Shinkun La tunnel commencing, the third all-weather axis to Ladakh will be established, he added.
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“We have now established connectivity on this vital axis. Soon, we will start work on blacktopping the road. With construction of the Shinkun La tunnel also commencing, the third all-weather axis to Ladakh will be established,” BRO chief Lt-General Raghu Srinivasan said.
The PM-led cabinet committee on security in February last year had approved the Rs 1,681 crore construction of the twin-tube 4.1-km tunnel under the forbidding Shinkun La (la means pass) at an altitude of 16,558 feet, on the border between Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh, for ‘alternate’ all-weather connectivity to Ladakh. The tunnel is likely to be constructed in another two years or so
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