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| BORDER ROADS CONSTRUCTING A HORSE-SHOE TUNNEL THROUGH THE HIMALAYAS AT ROHTANG | | | Anil Bhat | 6/27/2011 9:49:53 PM |
| Rohtang, which in Persian means, ‘piles of dead bodies’, is a Himalayan mountain pass at an altitude of 3,978 meters (13,044 feet) in the Pir Panjal range, 51 kms from Manali. Remaining snowbound for over six months in a year, it cuts the tribal Lahaul-Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh from the strategically vital Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
Guided by their motto ‘Shramena Sarvam Sadhyam’ (With hard work everything can be achieved’), personnel of Border Roads Organisation (BRO), of the General Reserve Engineering force are working with tireless zeal to span the vast and arduous Lahaul-Leh gap with a unique engineering challenge of a horse-shoe shaped tunnel.
A brainchild of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the Rohtang Tunnel was first conceived in 1983 to develop the Manali-Sarchu-Leh road to an all-weather alternate route for strategic considerations and a preliminary study was conducted in 1984 in consultation with theGeological Survey of India (GSI) and the Manali-based Snow and Avalanche Studies Establishment (SASE). The detailed feasibility study for the ambitious Rohtang Tunnel was approved at a meeting of the BRO’s Development Board on January 14, 1987, presided over by Rajiv Gandhi himself. The plan was to first construct an access road leading to the actual tunnel site. The length of this access road from the tunnel’s South Portal towards Manali is 14.84 kms and 0.94 km from the mouth of tunnel exit, North Portal, joining Manali-Sarchu road at Km-stone 78.7, over the Chandra river. Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayeelaid the foundation stone for this approach road, costing Rs.180 crores. on May 26, 2002 The access road to the South Portal tunnel site, on which 18 snow avalanche protection structures are being erected, was completed in 2005.
In September 2009, The Cabinet Committee on Security cleared the Rohtang Tunnel project at a cost of Rs.1,495 crores. M/s Strabag-Afcons, a joint venture between India ’s Afcons Infrastructure Ltd and Strabag SE of Austria, world’s fourth largest construction company, was awarded the construction contract through a global tender. Presently the preparatory work and induction of resources is under progress. The actual tunneling work began in June, this year is expected to be completed in 63 months, i.e., by 2015. Ms/ SMEC International Pvt Ltd, an international firm, has been engaged as the consultants by the BRO for the Rohtang Project till its completion.
While the 8.8 kms long Rohtang Tunnel is much shorter than the 57 kms long Gotthard Base Railway Tunnel nearing completion in the Alps of Switzerland and not as high as the Fenghuoshan Railway Tunnel, part of Qinghai-Tibet Railway Line in China, touching 4,905 m (16,093 ft), completed in 2002, but built at altitudes ranging from 3,053 metres to 3,080 mtrs, it will be a an extraordinary engineering marvel, for a combination of length and altitude and shape with steep climbs in very cold climes.
The Rohtang Tunnel, when completed in 2015, will be the world’s longest tunnel at such altitudes, in fact, much longer than the longest tunnels anywhere around the world at altitudes over 2,500 m. The nearest in comparison to the Rohtang Tunnel would be the Anzob Road Tunnel in Tajikistan (5 kms long at an altitude of 3,372 metres), Khojak Rail Tunnel, built by the British way back in 1891, near Quetta in Pakistan (3.9 kms long at an altitude of 3,912 m) and the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel in the US (2.731 kms, alt.3,401 m) or in terms of altitude the Fenghuoshan Railway Tunnel (1.338 km long at an altitude of 4,905 metres) and the La Galera Railway Tunnel in Peru (1.177 kms long at an altitude of 4,781 metres).
The Rohtang Tunnel is not the longest rail/road tunnel in India, when compared with the 10.96 kms long Pir Panjal Railway Tunnel at Banihal in J&K, part of the Jammu-Srinagar railway line, due to be completed next year. However, the Banihal Tunnel is located at much lower altitudes, - touching 2,200 m at its peak and with an average altitude of 1,750 m. As of now the longest tunnel in the country is the 6.5 km long Karbude Tunnel in Ratnagiri districtof Maharashtra, part of the Konkan Railway network, but being located on the Western Ghats, this tunnel is located at almost negligible altitudes of less than 50 feet. The longest road tunnel in India is the 2.8 km long Jawahar Tunnel, again at Banihal, with an altitude of 2,209 m, completed in 1956, and has twin tube tunnels running side by side, also making it unique.
The tunnel’s design would be novel in many ways. Due to its long distance and the rarefied atmosphere at the heights it is located, the tunnel would incorporate Semi-Transverse Ventilation System, where large fans would separately circulate air in and out throughout the tunnel length. The tunnel, with a horseshow shaped cross-section, will be 11.25 m wide at road level, providing ample room for two way traffic and designed to cater to a maximum vehicular speed of 80 km/hr. But the Rohtang Tunnel alone might not be enough to make the Manali-Keylong-Leh highway an all-weather road, as there are another two major snowbound passes along the way, - Baralacha La and Thaglang La. To overcome these, the project envisages constructing a 292 kms long all-weather road, Nimu-Padam-Darcha, via Shinkunla Pass, traversing the remote Zanskar region of J&K, estimated to cost an additional Rs 286 crores.
The foundation stone for the digging work of the Rohtang Tunnel was laid by Ms. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of the National Advisory Council, on the 28 June, 2010, in the presence of Defence Minister AK Antony and Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju, Chief Ministers Prem Kumar Dhumal and Omar Abdullah, Minister for Steel Virbhadra Singh and Lt. Gen. MC Badhani, till recently, Director General, Border Roads and now Engineer-in-Chief. Once completed, Rohtang Tunnel will provide unhindered road access to the remote regions of Lahaul-Spiti and Ladakh throughout the year, besides reducing the road distance by approximately 48 km and saving travel time of about four hours, it will open up new vistas of trade and tourism and generate jobs for the benefit of the local population.
BRO, a premier organisation for infrastructure creation under the Ministry of Defence, which recently celebrated its Golden Jubilee, has constructed more than 48,300 kms of roads, 400 major bridges totaling to 36 kms and 19 airfields. Most of them are in difficult terrain and inhospitable climate. BRO is currently working on 699 roads running up to 28,000 kms, which include new constructions and double-lanes for old ones. Men of the BRO also carry out snow clearance operations on 95 roads, amounting to a road length of 3,000 kms.
Lt. Gen. S. Ravi Shankar, Director General, Border Roads, is sparing no effort in carrying forward many mega-projects, which, while interacting with this writer, he modestly stated are “making inaccessible areas accessible”. The question BRO engineers are often asked about many of their constructions, particularly by foreigners, is, “How did you do this?” Because the altitude, weather and related factors are like nowhere else in the world. BRO has always aimed at and maintained world-class standards in construction of roads, bridges, tunnels and other infrastructural projects.
Often unsung, over 60 percent of BRO personnel are deployed in very high altitude, extremely difficult and insurgency prone areas. The force lost 1,161 men since the year 2000 owing to the vagaries of nature and mishaps, working in icy weather and precipices several thousand feet high above sharp valleys and gorges, and at times due to attacks by militants. During the last decade the deaths of another 1,850 BRO men because of diseases arising out of hostile work conditions. While BRO’s gallantry awards in peace - 22 Kirti Chakras and 212 Shaurya Chakras including a Bar- are the official tally, there are many more of its bravehearts who have worked well beyond the call of duty to make to make life easier for their countrymen.
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