Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh to inaugurate Sela Tunnel comes exactly after one year and three months of brawl between Indian and Chinese troops on the Yangtze Heights overlooking Tawang, a border town coveted by China for several reasons.
The fight on the mountain top on 9 December 2022 was the first skirmish between Indian and PLA troops, after a bloody battle with stones and wooden clubs spiked with nails in Galwan in 2020.
But the raid on Tawang was not the first one by the Chinese troops. Observers believe that these raids are dry runs by the Chinese army, to the gauge the preparedness of Indian troops. Chinese side knows very well that it would be extremely difficult for Indian army to mobilise troops at short notice in a very unfriendly mountainous terrain, should it conduct full scale, surprise swoopdown to seize Tawang on a later date.
But the game has changed. Now troops can reach in minutes through Sela Tunnel where it took hours over the long, tortuous mountain road. Not just troops, but even heavy weaponry and equipment too can be shipped in no time to forward areas on the other side of the mountain, which till now could only be airlifted.
Sela Tunnel is built at the height 13,500 feet high in Himalayan mountain range and passes 180 feet below the Sela Pass. It is one of the scores of bridges and tunnel projects across the 3488 kilometre-long Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border, stretching from eastern most tip in Arunachal Pradesh to northern tip of Ladakh.
The span excludes India’s border with Nepal (1751km) and Bhutan (699km) and includes India-claimed China-held areas in Ladakh in northern Kashmir. Tawang is some 2000km away from Galwan, towards the east in Arunachal Pradesh.
Digging a tunnel that opens right next to PLA’s Western Theatre Command is a feat that has no precedent in the border infrastructure build up on the Indian side.
This comes within a year of accomplishing several tunnel and bridges projects on the eastern sector – such as Nechipu Tunnel, Siyum Bridge and Siang Bridge to provide all-weather connectivity to troops and heavy weapons to forward areas bordering China.
Just six month ago, Nechipu Tunnel in the north of Sela Pass in West Kameng District was opened for the people and military. The tunnel bypasses the Nechipu Pass in where troops had to move under very harsh conditions. Further east, on Siyum Bridge heavy artillery can now be rapidly moved over the Siyum River to strategically important Upper Siang district. Earlier it had to be airlifted. A 383-metre long Siang Bridge on Siang River that cuts down distance by 180 kilometres also deserves a mention among these critical and game-changing projects on the Eastern front.
Most remarkable is the ongoing construction of Zozila Tunnel under the Zozila Pass on the Western front of India-China Border, is the Asia’s longest that would connect Jammu and Kashmir with Ladakh. This will cut distance between Jammu & Kashmir to Ladakh from 3 hours to just 20 minutes. This is slated to be ready by 2026, but sources believe it will be ready by the end of this year itself under Modi’s powerful infra push on China border. All these projects were almost inconceivable earlier, but Modi government is resolved to achieve under all conditions. Workers are working under minus-20 degree and round the year. Even during peak of Covid pandemic the work did not stop. In view of non-availability of any transport during nationwide lockdown period, the PM office ordered workers be airlifted from Bihar to Kashmir so that work does not stop, sources say.
No accurate figures are available as to how many infrastructure projects of roads, bridges and tunnels are underway along the LAC, but it is estimated there are at least 28 projects spread across four northern and north-eastern border states and one Union territory of Ladakh (part of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir), Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.
The terrain on the each side of the LAC between India and China are starkly different. On the China side one can see swathes of Tibetan plateau and on the Indian side there is sudden onset of craggy, steep and tall mountains of Himalayan range.
The nature of terrain explains why it has been comparatively very easy for China to rapidly build military infrastructure and why India could not. When India moved by inches, China moved miles. For what India is taking years, China setting up within days. In terms of border infrastructure parity, India has still a long way to go to match China, but the determined manner in which BRO engineers are accomplishing projects like Sela and Zozila tunnels ahead of time which were thought impossible, is going to change the game on the northern front.
