$500m tunnel in Himachal Pradesh: India digs deep to boost defences on crucial China frontier

ATAL ROHTANG TUNNEL - A tunnel nearing completion in the Indian Himalayas will slash by hours the time it takes troops to reach the Chinese border, part of an infrastructure blitz by New Delhi that is gathering pace since a bloody border clash.

Its stepped-up infrastructure programme includes roads and bridges as well as high-altitude helipads and airstrips for civilian and military aircraft. "There have been times on the pass route when vehicles have broken down, causing traffic jams of even six to eight hours," said Lieutenant-General Harpal Singh, head of India's Border Roads Organisation .ENGINEERING FEAT Labourers are working overtime to get the tunnel ready before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to open it later this month.

A decade in the making, freezing winter temperatures meant work could take place only from April to September. Workers wore special microchips to help locate them if they got trapped in an avalanche."Earlier administrations wasted two decades," said Prof Harsh Pant, from the Observer Research Foundation think tank in New Delhi.

Significantly, by next month all bridges along the route will be able to support the weight of a 70 tonne T-90 tank on a trailer, or a truck carrying a surface-to-air missile, according to press reports.

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