Wildlife board nods alternate alignment to Daulat Beg Oldi Road

The National Board of Wildlife has cleared the development of an alternate alignment to the Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) Road on the Chinese border from Ladakh’s Saser la to Saser Brangsa.

The strategically vital highway will cross by the Karakoram Wildlife Sanctuary.

Around 55 hectares of the sanctuary will be used for creating the highway and protecting wildlife. On March 25, the wildlife board gave its go forward for highway development, an annual compliance report could be submitted then. The inexperienced sign was formally introduced solely this week.

The strategy highway is a necessary precursor to the all-weather tunnel connectivity planned around Saser la, deeper in the Indian region. The DBO Road is on the coronary heart of the India-China standoff in Ladakh and is closer to Chinese positions. An alternate highway is geared toward delivering extra operational and logistic options for the defence forces.

The atmosphere ministry has been fast-tracking clearances to strategic initiatives, especially on the Indo- China border. In addition to reducing inexperienced norms for border roads noting nationwide safety. The 30-km stretch that’s now being constructed in its place strategy to enter DBO sites, Depsang plains, and Karakoram Pass is a part of the earlier caravan route. As of now, they can solely be accessed by the 255-km-long Darbuk-Shyok-DBO (DSDBO) Road, which is inclined to Chinese assaults.

The new alignment to be formed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in challenging terrain, for which a series of forest and wildlife clearances have been sought on excessive precedence, starts from Sasoma off the bottom of the Siachen Glacier. It will move to Saser La at 17,800 toes, after which travel into Gapsam off the Depsang plains, the place it is going to hyperlink up with the DSDBO Road. While a highway from Sasoma to Saser La is below development and allows navy autos from Murgo off Depsang plains already, the stretch between Saser La to Saser Brangsa has to have travelled on foot. Though a tunnel has been accredited right here by the defence ministry, it is going to take several years to be finished.

BRO said that this highway was required for connecting with the extremely strategic space of the DBO and for boosting safety within the space till then. The highway will probably be required to achieve the proposed tunnel level at Sasser la. While an all-weather connection is there between Leh and Sasoma, tunnels are deliberate alongside the route to make it highway worthy even in winters.

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