New Delhi
Border Road Organisation (BRO) conducted final break through blast to mark the successful completion of excavation work of the Nechiphu Tunnel, in Arunachal Pradesh on May 20, 2022. Director General of BRO Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhry conducted it remotely from New Delhi. The foundation stone of project was laid by Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh on October 12, 2020.
The Nechiphu Tunnel, at an altitude of 5,700 feet, is a unique 500-metre-long D-shaped, Single Tube Double Lane Tunnel on the Balipara-Charduar-Tawang (BCT) Road in West Kameng District. The tunnel will accommodate two-way traffic and will be equipped with modern lighting and safety facilities. The tunnel has been conceived to bypass extreme foggy conditions prevailing around Nechiphu Pass which have caused hindrance to general traffic and military convoys since many decades. The tunnel will be provided with a state-of-the-art electro-mechanical system including firefighting devices, auto illumination system and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) controlled monitoring systems. It will also accommodate raised footpaths on both sides for safer pedestrian movement which will have ducts for Power cables, optical fibre cables and utility lines to strengthen the civic amenities infrastructure.
In tandem with the Nechiphu Tunnel project, the Project Vartak of BRO has also completed the excavation work on another strategic tunnel, the Twin Tube (1,555 meter and 980 meter) Sela Tunnel Project on the same road, on January 22, 2022. Today’s blast thus, marks the cumulative excavation of more than 4,500 meters, achieved by BRO Karmyogis in less than two years.
