BRO gets Guinness recognition for building road at 19,024 ft in Ladakh

The Border Roads Organisation has made a Guinness World Record for constructing and blacktopping the world’s highest motorable road at 19,024 feet at Umlingla Pass in Ladakh.

Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhry, Director General of the Border Roads Organization (BRO), received the Guinness World Records certificate on Tuesday. In a virtual ceremony, the official adjudicator of the Guinness World Records based in the United Kingdom, Rishi Nath, acknowledged the remarkable achievement of BRO for constructing the highest altitude road in the world, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Defence in New Delhi. The Guinness World Records took four months to get the BRO’s achievement verified by five different surveyors.

The 52-kilometre long Chisumle to Demchok tarmac road passes through the 19,024 feet high Umlingla Pass and betters the previous record of a road in Bolivia, which connects volcano Uturuncu at 18,953 feet.

The Umlingla Pass road was constructed at an altitude higher than the North and South Base Camps of Mount Everest which are at an altitude of 16,900 feet and 17,598 feet respectively.

The BRO chief Lt Gen Chaudhry spoke about the challenges faced during the road construction to Umlingla Pass, which he said, tested both the human spirit and efficacy of machines in an extremely tough terrain where temperatures in winters dip to minus 40 degrees and oxygen levels are 50 per cent below normal.

The BRO provided a blacktopped road to the important village of Demchok in Eastern Ladakh that will be a boon to the local population of the region as it will enhance the socio-economic conditions and promote tourism in Ladakh.

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