New Delhi: Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has started the construction of 64-km long Likaru-Mig La-Fukche road close to Hanle in Eastern Ladakh’s Demchok sector. Once completed, it will be the world’s highest motorable road at a height of 19,400 ft in Mig La.
Currently, Umling La in Ladakh at a height of 19,024 ft holds the record of being the highest motorable road in the world. It is a 52-km road that connects Chishumle to Demchok, which is right on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), and a friction point between India and China.
According to media reports, an all-woman unit of BRO engineers began construction this Tuesday. The new road, connecting Likaru with Fukche, will play a crucial role in accessing the LAC for the armed forces to be deployed all along the Indus valley in Fukche, right up to Demchok.
Fukche is situated three kilometres from the LAC in Eastern Ladakh.
“The Chushul-Dungti-Fukche-Demchok (CDFD) road runs parallel to the LAC. The new road is a feeder road to reach CDFD, meaning it will shorten the time taken to reach the LAC. Apart from being of strategic importance, it will also lead to socio-economic development of adjacent villages,” a BRO public relations officer told ThePrint.
Reportedly, a budget of approximately Rs 520 crore was set aside for the construction of the new road.
The region is susceptible to heavy snowfall, with temperatures plummeting to minus 10-20 degrees Celsius in summers and minus 40 degrees in winters.
Explaining the geography of the area, Lt. Gen. Rakesh Sharma (retired), who commanded the Fire and Fury Corps in Ladakh, said, “The Indus river enters from Tibet at Demchok and goes 75 km between the Kailash range and Ladakh range before it turns westwards, splitting the Ladakh range at Dungti. This used to be the only road to access up to Demchok through Dungti.”
He added that there was always a need to have an additional road — axials in military parlance — connecting Chumar sector and Hanle sector to the Indus Valley.
“It is a question of strategic geography that matters here. (Till now) our access was limited to 75 km along the LAC, especially because the Kailash range is largely held by People’s Liberation Army,” Sharma said.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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