AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH
MANALI: Cutting mountains of snow, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), a wing of the Defence Ministry that maintains the strategic highways, in a historic feat has managed to link this Himachal Pradesh tourist resort with Leh in Ladakh two months ahead of schedule despite facing natural disasters like avalanches and landslides amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The 428-km Manali-Leh highway was reopened to motorists on March 28 with the completion of the snow-clearing operations, officials said on Tuesday.
The highway is strategic for the movement of the armed forces and their supplies and wares to forward areas in Ladakh region that borders both China and Pakistan.
"This time we had only one challenge i.e. that was to make the Baralacha Pass (16,020 ft) motorable after clearing the winter snow," a senior BRO official said.
Earlier, there was a herculean task to make the way zooming through the Rohtang Pass (13,050 ft). With the opening of the 9.02-km long horseshoe-shaped Atal Tunnel, the world's longest motorable tunnel, under the Rohtang Pass in the Pir Panjal range, some 30 km from here, the pass is now only the alternative gateway to Leh.
"Well ahead of the onset of snowfall in November last, we had stationed machinery and stored ration across the Baralacha Pass in Sarchu," BRO's Chief Engineer (Project Deepak) Brigadier M.S. Baghi told the media.
He said in the second week of February a team of six BRO men, comprising an engineer, trekked the Baralacha Pass by risking their lives.
The Manali-Leh highway winds its way through the Rohtang Pass (13,050 feet), Baralacha Pass (16,020 feet), Lachlungla Pass (16,620 feet) and Tanglangla (17,480 feet).
While the BRO's Project Deepak is responsible for clearing snow on the Sarchu-Manali highway, Project Himank takes care of the Leh-Sarchu highway. Sarchu is a border between Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. The idyllic settings of the Himalayas draw an increasing number of backpackers, especially foreigners, for adventure activities. The Manali-Leh highway, a challenge to operate and maintain for the BRO, was reopened last year on May 18 and was closed for the traffic on December 5.
"The climatic condition on their trek was extremely harsh with continuous snowstorms amid a low oxygen environment and the minimum temperature hovering below minus 30 degrees Celsius. Since there was no shelter en route and camping was not feasibly, our men spent a night in a snow-struck truck parked on a roadside," a BRO official said. (IANS)