NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday dedicated the important Sela Tunnel project to the nation virtually from Itanagar. The project will provide all-weather connectivity to the strategically significant Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh.
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in a statement said the Sela tunnel has been constructed at an altitude of 13,000 feet with a total cost of Rs 825 crore.
“Sela Tunnel will not only boost defence preparedness of Indian Armed Forces in Tawang Sector but will also augment socioeconomic development of this border region,” it said.
After dedicating the Sela tunnel to the nation, the Prime Minister flagged off the first civilian convoy consisting of two buses from Tawang and felicitated the BRO personnel and casual paid labourers involved in the construction.
Earlier, the route to the snow-covered 13,700-ft high Sela top had only single-lane connectivity and treacherous bends due to which heavy vehicles, container trucks and vehicles with trailers could not get to Tawang. China has been staking claim over this area due to its significance among Buddhists and specifically people from Tibet due to the Tawang Monastery.
Moreover, due to adverse weather conditions, specifically in winters, evacuation of patients was adversely affected along the existing Sela Pass. All this is now feasible with the opening of the tunnel. The completed Sela Tunnel System will reduce the travel distance by more than eight km and travelling time by an hour. This tunnel will improve the quality of life of the people living in the region, by providing easier access to healthcare, education and essential services in the region.
The Sela tunnel project is located in the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, and will provide all-weather connectivity to Tawang. The Sela tunnel system consists of two tunnels of lengths 1003 m and 1595 m respectively with 8.6 km approach and link roads. The second tunnel also has an escape tube adjacent to the main tunnel as per international norms. The escape tube constructed parallel to the main tube is connected with cross passages after every 500m. In case of emergency, this escape tube can be used for the movement of rescue vehicles and evacuation of stranded people. The tunnel has been designed for a traffic density of 3000 cars and 2000 trucks per day with a maximum speed of 80 km/hr.
The project sanctioned in October 2018 also includes the construction of an approach road of 7 km to Tunnel 1, which takes off from Balipara-Charduar-Tawang (BCT) Road and a link road of 1.3 km, which connects Tunnel 1 to Tunnel 2.
The road had various bottlenecks like Nichephu, Bomdila Town and Sela Pass, which have been addressed by the BRO with the construction of the Sela and Nichephu Tunnels and Bomdila Bypass. The 500 m long Nechiphu Tunnel was inaugurated and dedicated to the nation in September 2023 by Rajnath Singh.
Sela tunnel has been constructed using New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) which is widely accepted and used in construction of tunnels worldwide especially for Himalayan geology. It is based on the philosophy of “Build As You Go” and involves using the inherent strength of the surrounding rock mass to support the tunnel. The execution of this mega project took over 90 lakh man-hours with an average of around 650 personnel and labourers working every day for the last five years. The enormity of the task could be judged by the quantity of 71,000 metric tons of cement, 5000 metric tons of steel and 800 metric tons of explosive that was used for construction. A total of 162 plants and machinery were dedicated to the construction of this tunnel.
Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stone for the Sela tunnel project on Feb 9, 2019. Tawang town is inhabited by more than 50,000 people, called Little Tibet by China. It is one of the contentious areas which China claims as its own. At present, there is a lone highway that connects Tawang with Guwahati and the rest of the country in winter.
Not even helicopters can fly in that area due to bad weather conditions. The BRO is currently executing multiple important projects spread across the country. The aim is to match the buildup of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army across the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
There has been a push for road connectivity towards the 3,488 km-long Line of Actual Control which is divided into the Western Sector (Ladakh), Middle Sector (Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand) and Eastern Sector (Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh).
In the last one year, the BRO has completed and dedicated to the nation an unprecedented 125 infrastructure projects constructed at a cost of Rs 3611 crore.
