All-weather road gives a strategic fillip to Ladakh

The Nimmu-Padam-Darcha road allows surface movement from Leh to Lahaul-Spiti through the world’s highest tunnel at Shinku La Pass at 16,580 feet, which is currently under construction

Border Roads Organisation personnel are engaged construction work of Shinkun La tunnel near Zanskar river in Ladakh. Photo: X/@SpokespersonMoD via PTI

The Border Roads Organisation’s (BRO) latest feat in Ladakh, connecting Himachal Pradesh and Leh through the Nimmu-Padam-Darcha road, has come as a shot in the arm for security forces stationed in the region, and added significantly to India’s strategic depth in the hostile border neighbourhood. 

The BRO’s breakthrough, achieved on March 27 this year, has paved the way to open up the far-off Zanskar Valley for the safest ordnance depot, away from the prying eyes of China and Pakistan, officials privy to the development told The Hindu.

The Nimmu-Padam-Darcha road allows surface movement from Leh to Lahaul-Spiti through the world’s highest tunnel at Shinku La Pass at 16,580 feet, which is under construction. 

“The road will be the first all-weather road connecting Ladakh to the rest of the country,” officials said. 

The tunnel is likely to be completed by 2025. Maintaining logistics in the absence of all-weather roads to the region, especially during Ladakh’s harsh winters, has always been a concern to security strategists. At present, security forces stock ration and ammunition months in advance to maintain a vigil on the borders. China, on the other hand, has already developed all-weather road networks close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC). 

The Nimmu-Padam-Darcha road is just 298 km from Manali in Himachal Pradesh. It’s the third axis and the shortest route compared with the currently operational Manali-Leh road (428 km) and Srinagar-Leh road (439 km). 

Once the Shinkula tunnel is thrown open in western Ladakh’s Zanskar Valley, the mobilisation of troops to Ladakh will be much faster and less exposed than the current routes passing close to the northern and eastern areas, surrounded by Pakistan and China. “It will make defence preparedness much safer,” another official said.

However, there are murmurs of discontentment among locals over the project. 

“On one hand, I am happy to learn that BRO India has connected the strategic Nimmu-Padam-Darcha road in Ladakh recently. However, I am really concerned that it might change the landscape of Zanskar, the land of rich culture and heritage,” climate activist Sonam Wangchuk said in a post on social media platform X.

Advocate Mustafa Haji, a social activist from Kargil, said the construction of four lanes on the Kargil-Zanskar section is “completely needless, unless it is part of a bigger plan”. “Not to mention the number of trees that will have to be cut in the Suru Valley for this project,” Mr. Haji pointed out.

The Zanskar Range in Kargil, home to a unique indigenous culture, separates the Zanskar Valley from the Indus Valley of Leh. It is also the source of the Suru river, which flows through Kargil.