Light at the end of the tunnel for Keylong people in HP

Gently flowing glacier waters traversing snow-capped mountains can be a mesmerising site. As incessant snowfall veils everything in white drape, the picturesque bounty of nature becomes even more breathtaking. Upper Himalayan regions in the tiny hill state of Himachal Pradesh provide all that and more. But this brings along multitude of adversities, sometimes unforgiving.

Like for Hardei of Tindi village near Keylong in Himachal Pradesh. A few months ago, a woman delivered twins at a helipad near Keylong. She was to be airlifted to Kullu as connectivity through roads was snapped due to heavy snowfall. Bad weather forced the emergency landing of the chopper. Hardei lost one of her babies.

Snow clad upper Himachal Pradesh regions face many such exigencies that meet disastrous ends at times. The only help comes from a state-run chopper that responds to emergency situations when the region is cut off from the rest of the world for at least four months every winter.

The situation has been like this for decades. But much is set to ease out as early as next month. The strategic 8.8-km all-weather Rohtang Tunnel, which is the highest tunnel in the country to be made, will open to emergency traffic towards October-end.

Take it as a Deepavali gift as it promises to restrict losses that may occur on account of impediments in the process of emergency evacuation in times of distress. Tragedies, like the one Hardei met with, will ebb.

This horse-shoe shaped tunnel is built under the Rohtang Pass at an altitude of 13,050 feet in the eastern Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas on the picturesque Leh-Manali highway. While the tunnel will cater to emergency vehicles, including for movement of military vehicles, it will get fully operational by mid of 2019.

Ravi Thakur, the Lahaul-Spiti MLA, said it has been agreed to give passage to emergency vehicles through Rohtang Ttunnel during this winter itself. Discussions, he said, have already been held with Border Roads Organisation (BRO) authorities. Evacuation of patients--that remains a horrendous challenge given that chopper availability depends heavily on weather conditions-- through the tunnel will provide the answer.

The tunnel project is three years behind schedule. Cost overruns were bound to happen. In 2010, the estimated cost of the project was Rs 1,700 crore and was revised to Rs 2,000 crore in 2015. Now that the deadline has been rescheduled for 2019, the projected cost is likely to be Rs 4,000 crore.

The project was earlier scheduled to be completed in February 2015. However, water ingresses, ban on rock mining and other technical difficulties slowed down the project.

The 9.2-km Patnitop Tunnel, that links the insurgency-hit Kashmir Valley with Jammu on the national highway, is the country’s longest road tunnel, but at a far less altitude of nearly 4,000 feet. Keylong and upper Himalayan regions, upwards of Manali and Rohtang Pass, remain cut off for several months during the winters. Schools and shops shut down, public transportation comes to a grinding halt and snow blizzards often snap power supplies and telephone connectivity in times when it’s needed the most in freezing sub-zero temperatures. Roads are inundated with several feet deep snow.

The opening of the Rohtang Tunnel will bring down the distance between Manali and Leh by 46 km or about two-and-a-half hours of less travel time. The two-lane tunnel is over 11 meters wide and is designed for 3,000 vehicles per day. The maximum permissible speed is about 80 km per hour.

Movement of military supplies and troop to the frontiers in the valley will be facilitated even in the winters when movement freezes on other long-existing routes. A 200- metre plus of tunnel areas is all that is left for the work to be completed. The two portals of the tunnel-- the south portal and the north-- will be connected by the fag end of October, officials say.

According to sources, four more tunnels are likely to be constructed to start an all-weather connectivity route with roads linking the Chinese frontiers in Leh and Ladakh. The four proposed tunnels as decided by the Defence Ministry will traverse towering mountain passes in the Himalayan and Zanskar mountain ranges to facilitate civilian and army movement in the border areas. Italian consultants have been engaged to undertake a feasibility study of the project given by the BRO.

The problem of water ingress from a glacier-fed rivulet above the tunnel was a major challenge to construct this engineering marvel. In 2012, it took expert engineers nearly a year to plug the seepage. Working conditions have been arduous. Snow avalanches at the tunnel’s northern end often brought work to a halt.

The areas through which the tunnel would pass saw temperature up to minus 20 in December to February every winter. Many times, digging would slow down to only about 5-7 metres in a day in such conditions. Civil engineers used the drill and blast technique for excavation as part of the ‘new Austrian tunneling method.’

The project was conceived in 1998 and announced by the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in June 2000. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi laid the foundation stone of the project in June 2010. For 3-years since 2010, work was carried out only for six months on the project due to heavy snowfall in winters that made movement of men and machinery impossible. The BRO has jointly carried out this project with an Indian-Austrian company.