Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be inaugurating the Sela Tunnel project during his visit to Arunachal Pradesh on March 9. He laid the foundation of the project in February 2019. As per a PTI report, PM Modi will also be inaugurating 20 other projects.
Sela Tunnel project
Built at a total cost of Rs 825 crore, the tunnel project has been constructed on the Road connecting Tezpur to Tawang in the state at an altitude of 13,000 feet. It will be providing an all-weather connectivity to the Tawang Region.
The Sela Tunnel project has been executed by the Border Road Organisation (BRO) and comprises two tunnels and a link road. Tunnel 1 will be a 980-metre long single-tube and Tunnel 2 will extend to 1,555 metres with one bi-lane tube for traffic and another dedicated to emergency services. The connecting road between the tunnels will measure 1,200 meters in length.
In 2019, the government outlined three key benefits of the tunnel: ensuring all-weather access to forward areas, significantly cutting travel time by over an hour between Tezpur and Tawang, and providing a safer alternative for travelers by bypassing the hazardous snow-covered Sela top, situated at an altitude of 13,700 feet.
In January 2021 the first blast of Tunnel 1 was carried out, followed by the final blast for the 980-metre tunnel in January 2022. Subsequently, a breakthrough blast for Tunnel 2 occurred in October 2021.