The tunnel project was announced by BRO last year. It is expected to promote tourism and ease military movements in a key region of Arunachal Pradesh.
New Delhi: In his Budget speech, finance minister Arun Jaitley announced that allocations are being made this year to construct a new tunnel at the Sela pass – a critical project that will cut down travel time to Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, by over an hour, besides giving all-weather access for troops to the China border in the disputed region.
Jaitley spoke of the tunnel being a boost for tourism in the region, but the big beneficiary of the tunnel will be the army, which is deployed heavily in Tawang – one of the most contentious pieces of land between India and China.
Sela also has special significance for India, given how it brought into focus defences in the 1962 war, after the Army had to abandon it while retreating from Chinese forces. The situation now is different, with Indian forces heavily deployed along the border.
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had announced the tunnel construction project at Sela in July 2017, sharing details of two tunnels that will past through the 4,170-metre high pass.
Connectivity to Tawang has been a sore point for the Army, which has to depend on helicopter runs to drop supplies, transport troops, and evacuate casualties during the long winters, in which heavy snow cuts it off from the plains.
The Sela tunnel will reduce the road distance to Tawang by 10 km, and will ensure that the stretch from Bomdila to Tawang remains open throughout the year in all weather conditions.
The BRO’s Project Vartak has already started land acquisition and double landing of the national highway as part of the larger plan. Two tunnels — of lengths 475 m and 1,790 m — will be constructed by BRO.
FFS it’s arunachal Pradesh not tawang