• NET Web Desk

Marking the successful culmination of excavation works, the Border Roads Organization (BRO) today conducted its final “break through blast” on the 500-metres long Nechiphu Tunnel at West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Director General of BRO – Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhry conducted it remotely from New Delhi.

Its worthy to note that the foundation stone of project was laid-down by the Union Defence Minister – Rajnath Singh on October 12, 2020.

Situated at an altitude of 5,700 feet; the Nechiphu Tunnel is a unique “D-shaped, Single Tube Double Lane Tunnel” at the Balipara-Charduar-Tawang (BCT) stretch in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng District.

The tunnel will accommodate two-way traffic and will include modern lighting and safety features. It has been designed to avert terrible foggy conditions that have plagued general traffic and military convoys in the area near Nechiphu Pass.

It will be outfitted with a cutting-edge electro-mechanical system, which will include firefighting equipment, an auto-illumination system, and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)-controlled monitoring systems.

In addition, the tunnel will include raised pathways on both sides for safer pedestrian movement, as well as ducts for power cables, optical fibre cables, and utility lines, all of which will help to reinforce the civic amenities infrastructure.

On January 22, 2022, the BRO’s Project Vartak finished excavation work on another vital tunnel, the Twin Tube (1,555 metre and 980 metre) “Sela Tunnel Project” on the same road, in parallel with the Nechiphu Tunnel project.

In less than two years, BRO personnel has excavated almost 4,500 metres.

The Nechiphu Tunnel, along with the Sela Tunnel, will provide secure, all-weather strategic connectivity on the BCT Road while reducing carbon emissions in this environmentally sensitive area once completed.

This tunnel is being erected by cutting through brittle and heavily fragmented rock strata.