Chardham Pariyojana: Chamba Tunnel

Chardham Pariyojana: Chamba Tunnel

Part of: GS-III- Infrastructure (PT-MAINS-PERSONALITY TEST)

Recently, the Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways inaugurated the Chamba Tunnel which has completed under Chardham Pariyojana through video conference mode.

About Chamba tunnel:

• The Chamba tunnel is a horse-shoe type tunnel with 10 m carriageway width and 5.5 m vertical clearance.
• It is 440 m long Tunnel below the busy Chamba town on Rishikesh-Dharasu road Highway (NH 94).
• BRO (Border Road Organisation) is a key stakeholder in this project and the work of Chamba tunnel has been completed by Team Shivalik with use of the latest Austrian technology.
• This tunnel project will be completed for traffic in October 2020, ie, three months ahead of the schedule.
• This tunnel will facilitate the speedy movement of traffic and will also reduce congestion and distance to Chamba town bringing economic prosperity to the region.

About Chardham Pariyojana:

• Ministry of Road Transport & Highways launched this project to improve connectivity for Char-Dham namely Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri & Gangotri in Uttarakhand. The length of 889 km is to be covered under the project.
• This project is being implemented on Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode of contract.
• This project is being implemented by three different executing agencies of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, namely, Uttarakhand State PWD, Border Road Organization(BRO) and National Highway & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).
• These four pilgrimages sites in Uttarakhand are known as Chota Char Dham so as to differentiate them from the bigger circuit of modern-day Char Dham sites namely Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri and Rameswaram.

About Border Road Organisation (BRO):

• BRO is engaged in road construction to provide connectivity to difficult and inaccessible regions in the border areas of the country and works under the aegis of The Ministry of Defence.
• The Border Roads Organization plays a very important role in construction, maintenance and security of roads and in the development of border areas like those of North, Eastern states, Jammu and Kashmir etc.
• BRO has also undertaken work in numerous foreign countries, thus having contributed immensely towards maintaining friendly and diplomatic relations with them e.g. Delaram-Zaranj Highway in Afghanistan in 2008 and the Farkhor and Ayni airbases of Tajikistan were also restored and repaired by BRO.

It is entrusted for construction of Roads, Bridges, Tunnels, Causeways, Helipads and Airfields along the borders.

Officers from the Border Roads Engineering Service (BRES) and personnel from the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) form the parent cadre of the Border Roads Organisation.

It is also staffed by officers and troops drawn from the Indian Army’s Corps of Engineers on extra regimental employment.

The BRO operates and maintains over 32,885 kilometres of roads and about 12,200 meters of permanent bridges in the country.