Harsh weather, tough terrain posed hurdles: BRO DG

SELA PASS: Border Roads Organisation (BRO) chief Lt Gen Raghu Srinivasan said constructing the world’s longest two-way tunnel was very challenging due to the harsh weather and tough Himalayan terrain.

Elaborating on the difficulties the engineers faced, Srinivasan said as they were digging deep, cavities surfaced which normally is a common phenomenon in a fault-ridden strata. He added that the engineers had to maintain extreme caution owing to this.

“The weather was harsh and roads were closed for most part of the year,” he added.

The CMD of the engineering firm, Rupen Patel, said sometimes the temperature would dip to -20°C and diesel would freeze. So, they had to bring in special fuel and requisitioning it was a challenge as it is reserved for the armed forces. He, however, said they were given access as this was a project of national importance.

The BRO DG said there was a major cloudburst last year and the approach and the jigs got washed away.

“Another challenging aspect of the project was the altitude. At 13,000 ft, maintaining lines of communication, bringing any equipment up here from the plains and setting up camps takes more time that it would have otherwise,” Lt Gen Srinivasan said.

He added, “Like any other project, initially within a year-and-a-half, we got affected by Covid-19 which in turn hit the movement of machinery and stores as well as the people working in the site,” he added.

Asked how important this tunnel would be for the Army, he said, “Tawang is a border area and one had to go through the Sela Pass to reach there earlier. And if you have to move troops and equipment through a bottleneck, you would always be vulnerable. But when you have all-weather connectivity, moving men, materials, weaponry, ammunition and stores, and in the quantities that the Army actually needs, becomes easier.

He further stated, “The previous road was a winding road. So, we couldn’t operate trailers, containers, heavy machinery and long-16-axel trucks. They could never go through the Sela Pass and could never reach Tawang,” said Lt Gen Srinivasan. But now, it is no longer a problem.