By TON Research Section
Hundreds of laborers are working to finish India's longest and highest tunnel connecting Kashmir Valley with Ladakh, which shares de facto borders with Pakistan and China. The tunnel is anticipated to open to the public on January 25, the eve of India's Republic Day, in 2024. India is stepping up efforts to make the strategic Zojila tunnel in Indian-administered Kashmir, aiming to reduce travel time to Ladakh, where China is increasingly pushing its territorial claims with the so-called Line of Actual Control (LAC).
High in a rocky Himalayan mountain range in the Indian-administered Kashmir, hundreds of people are racing on this strategically important project, drilling tunnels and constructing bridges to connect the Kashmir Valley with Ladakh, a cold, desert region isolated for half of the year because of a huge snowstorm. India currently rests on air supplies for about six months of the year. A 6.5-km (four-mile) tunnel, the first among the four, is already complete and will make the resort town of Sonamarg accessible during the winter months for the first time.
Indian and Chinese soldiers have been engaged in a sometimes violent standoff in the Karakoram Mountains in Ladakh for more than 16 months along their de facto border, called the Line of Actual Control. China and the Indian sides have deployed tens of thousands of soldiers there, backed by artillery, tanks, and fighter jets. Indian military architects vision the tunnel project as tremendously significant for Ladakh. It will provide logistics flexibility to the military and give it operational and strategic movement.
India has built a setup of tunnels, bridges, and roads in Ladakh to permit for quick deployment of troops in the antagonistic high-altitude region — where temperatures dip as low as -45 degrees Celsius (-49 F). The tunnel, the mass infrastructure project's last, will pass through Zojila in Indian-occupied Kashmir to Sonamarg, which marks the end of conifer-clad mountains before Ladakh begins across the rocky Zojila Mountain pass. The Zojila subway, estimated to cost $932 million (€815 million), will be India’s longest and highest tunnel, at 11,500 feet (3,485 meters).
The passageway would not only allow the Indian Army more elasticity in handling logistics — but it would also decrease the travel time on Zojila Pass from 3.5 hours to 15 minutes. The horseshoe-shaped, single-tube bidirectional tunnel would also short the space from Baltal to Minamarg from 40 kilometers (25 miles) to 13 kilometers. The time for the completion of the tunnel has been reduced by almost three years, to December 2023.
The Zojila Pass, which joins Kashmir's capital city, Srinagar, to Ladakh, is an international disputed territory that constitutes part of the larger Kashmir region. India forges ahead with the tunnel between Kashmir and Ladakh as it depends on Kashmir valley for most basic necessities, from vegetables to fuel to medicine and other essentials come through the Zojila pass, making life difficult for locals, who are forced to stockpile items for half of the year. The Zojila tunnel might open up Ladakh to tourists year-round and help facilitate the easier delivery of health care products and other basic amenities for the locals.
India looks to revamp Ladakh with an infrastructure overhaul to counter China and Pakistan. The Zojila tunnel will have inordinate prominence to India's security, as military activities increase at the borders in the Ladakh, Gilgit, and Baltistan regions. As both India and China have positioned tens of thousands of soldiers in those areas, backed by artillery, tanks, and fighter jets.
The tunnel will provide logistics flexibility to the military and give it operational and strategic mobility in case of emergencies and would make the movement of troops and weaponry to Ladakh through the tunnel. As India-China tensions have spiked in recent years as New Delhi accused Beijing of sending troops to the borders. In June last year, at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a clash with Chinese forces in Ladakh, marking the deadly clash in the border area in at least 45 years. The 13th round of talks between Beijing and Delhi in October to resolve the disputed Himalayan border broke down, with the sides blaming each other for the failure to make progress. Instead of take-out of troops from the border over the chilly winter, as many as 50,000 Indian soldiers will stay on the line for a second successive year.
The substitute routes between Srinagar and Leh are not only lengthy and hazardous in winters, but situated close to India's borders with Pakistan and China. The want for such a tunnel was first sensed during the 1999 India-Pakistan Kargil war. With China-Pakistan military collaboration becoming stronger in the region, India wants to speed up work on the tunnel to make Ladakh accessible to the Indian Army by road. India forms tunnels to connect Kashmir Valley with strategic Ladakh as it shares de facto borders with Pakistan and China and depends on air supplies for about six months of the year. Such a project will definitely increase the climate of war in the already tense South Asia regions due to India every now and then interferences into the internal matters of its neighboring countries besides working for its hegemonic designs in South Asia.