Manali-Leh road to open by mid-May

Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, April 30

The Border Roads Organisation is struggling hard to restore the traffic movement on the Manali-Leh highway via the Baralacha Pass.

The BRO, entrusted with the task to clear the highway of snow, intends to complete the work in two weeks. The highway was blocked in November due to heavy snowfall.

The restoration of this road will open the door for the people of tribal district of Lahaul-Spiti to run tourism activities in the region for self-employment.

After connecting the 13,050 feet high Rohtang Pass, now the BRO has engaged its workforce and machinery towards the Baralacha Pass.

BRO personnel are facing difficulty in moving ahead towards Baralacha due to high accumulation of snow.

Talking to The Tribune, BRO Commander Colonel AK Awasthi said, “Due to high altitude, the accumulation of snow is above 20 feet approximately, where we are facing challenge to move ahead. We are making efforts to restore this route within two weeks, provided the weather remains favourable.”

Baralacha is a high mountain pass (16,040 feet) in the Zanskar range, connecting Lahaul district in Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir and is situated on the Leh-Manali highway.

“This year the BRO had restored the Rohtang Pass much earlier and now we are confident that we will be able to restore it by mid-May.”

The General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF), commonly known as the BRO, is responsible for maintenance of the 474-km-long Manali-Leh highway. The road is the lifeline for the people of Lahaul-Spiti and Ladakh. It has gained immense strategic importance in view of the ongoing militancy in Srinagar. The Srinagar-Leh highway being very sensitive, the Army has started spending a huge amount on the maintenance of the Manali-Leh highway which had proved its importance during the Kargil war in 1999.

People of Lahaul-Spiti, who were engaged in tourism, are waiting desperately for the opening of this route, which will provide them livelihood in the region.