India building strategic tunnel

SONAMARG, India — High in a rocky Himalayan mountain range in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, hundreds of people are working on an ambitious project to drill tunnels and construct bridges to connect the Kashmir Valley with Ladakh, a cold-desert region isolated half the year because of massive snowfall.

Strategically important Ladakh shares de facto borders with Pakistan and China and currently depends on air supplies for about six months of the year.

Officials say a 4-mile tunnel, the first of four, is already complete and will make the resort town of Sonamarg accessible during the winter months for the first time. Sonamarg marks the end of conifer-clad mountains before Ladakh begins across the rocky Zojila mountain pass.

The $932 million project’s last tunnel, about 9 miles long, will bypass the challenging Zojila pass and connect Sonamarg with Ladakh. Officials say it will be India’s longest and highest tunnel at 11,500 feet.

“It’s not like any other construction work. It’s great learning,” said one of the workers, Tariq Ahmed Lone, as he helped at a drilling machine.

Indian and Chinese soldiers have been engaged in a sometimes violent standoff in the Karakoram mountains in Ladakh for over 16 months along their de facto border, called the Line of Actual Control. Both countries have stationed tens of thousands of soldiers there, backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets.

Indian military planners view the tunnel project as extremely important for Ladakh. Experts say it will provide logistics flexibility to the military and give it operational and strategic mobility.

Politicians also see an opportunity in the project.

The Zojila part of the tunnel is to be functional in 2026, but India’s road transport and highways minister, Nitin Gadkari, said on a visit to the project site Tuesday that he hopes the work will be finished before a 2024 general election.

“It’s a challenge, I know, but I’m confident they can do it on time,” Gadkari said. “Obviously, we would want it to be finished before the elections.”

Tunnel. Nikhil Kumar (second from right) helps other workers to fix an iron rod Tuesday as they prepare a machine for rock bolting at the entrance of Nilgrar

(AP/DAR Yasin) Workers walk Tuesday inside the Nilgrar Tunnel after the end of their shift in the Baltal area, northeast of Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Kashmiri worker Tariq Ahmed Lone (right) stands Tuesday on a crane along with another worker employed by Megha Engineering And Infrastructures Limited as they work inside the Nilgrar Tunnel.

Mohammad Saleem, a drilling machine operator, is covered with dust Tuesday as he poses for picture at the entrance of Nilgrar Tunnel.

A worker assists Tuesday in the construction of a bridge that will connect Sonamarg to Nilgrar Tunnel.

Vehicles move through the Zojila Pass on Monday northeast of Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir.

A worker is shown Tuesday inside the Nilgrar tunnel.