New Delhi: In a long-awaited boost to the Indian armed forces in the Eastern sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday inaugurated the strategically-important Sela tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh.
Built at a cost of Rs 825 crore, it is constructed on the road connecting Tezpur in Assam to Tawang in Arunachal, which was overrun by Chinese soldiers in the 1962 War. The foundation stone for the Sela — the world’s longest bi-lane tunnel at an altitude above 13,000 ft — was laid by Modi in 2019 in Arunachal’s West Kameng district.
The Sela Tunnel, along with the Nechiphu tunnel on the 317-km long Balipara-Charduar-Tawang (BCT) road which leads to West Kameng and Tawang, will ensure that both defence and private vehicles will have all-year mobility.
At present, the Army and civilians use the Balipara-Chariduar Road (Assam) to reach Tawang, since the Sela pass is shut down in winters due to heavy snow.
According to sources, both tunnels are designed in such a way that all Army equipment, including large artillery pieces like the Bofors guns, tanks like the T-90 and Vajra howitzers, can easily travel through it all-year round, while also cutting down on time.
The Sela Tunnel consists of one main tunnel and one escape tunnel — both 1,555 metres-long — besides a shorter tunnel of 980 metres and a 1.2 km road.
This tunnel will also ensure that the Chinese are not able to monitor traffic movement in the area. The Sela Pass, at 13,700 feet, is currently visible to the Chinese and hence can observe all kinds of military movement.
The tunnel is part of the major infrastructure push by the Modi government in the Northeast as part of its efforts to strengthen both offensive and defensive capabilities along India’s borders with China.
While the Sela project has now been completed, the other big project that has been initiated is the Arunachal Frontier Highway, one of the country’s biggest and toughest projects. A 2,000-km long road project that follows the McMahon Line, the Arunachal Frontier Highway will begin from Mago in Arunachal, adjacent to Bhutan, and pass through Tawang, Upper Subansiri, Tuting, Mechuka, Upper Siang, Dibang Valley, Desali, Chaglagam, Kibithoo and Dong, before ending at Vijayanagar near the Myanmar border.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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