MANALI: Himachal-based 38 Border Road Task Force (BRTF) will intrude 10km into Jammu and Kashmir after crossing 16,500ft high Shingo-la pass to connect Kargiak, the remotest village of Zanskar in Ladakh in valley. The road will help connect landlocked Zanskar and Kargil with Himachal with the shortest possible distance.
Under project Deepak of Border Roads Organization (BRO), 38 BRTF has already connected Shingo-la with Manali-Leh highway at Darcha village at Lahaul. Challenging 39.5km gravel road to the pass is now commutable. Meanwhile, project Vijayak of BRO is building the road from Padum, headquarters of Zanskar, towards Shingo-la.
The formation cutting work till the territory of HP at Shingo-la in last season was completed before its targeted time while road coming from Sumdo is being built at comparatively slow speed. Therefore, project Deepak is given additional job of working in Jammu and Kashmir to build 10km road till its remotest village which is reachable from Srinagar in four to five days. This will speed up the project.
While majority of the Ladakh area is close to China and Pakistan, Zanskar is the safest part there which shares boundary with Himachal. The defence ministry has planned to take advantage of that for safe military movement by road to bordering areas. Zanskar is two-day drive away from Srinagar and three-day drive away from Manali via Kargil.
News Source Times of India
