Shinku-La Tunnel or Shinkula Tunnel or Shingo-La Tunnel or Shinkun La is upcoming motorable tunnel under 16,580ft high Shinku-la pass between Himachal’s Lahaul valley and Ladakh’s Zanskar valley in Northern India. The tunnel was given principal approval in 2021 but the Union Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (February 15, 2023) gave a final nod to the project. After budget allocation and floating tenders, the work to dig the tunnel started in July 2024. Ministry of Defence through Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is building Darcha-Shinkula-Padum-Nimu as an alternative road to connect Ladakh with Himachal Pradesh. This will be the third highway connecting Ladakh with mainland after Srinagar-Kargil-Leh and Manali-Sarchu-Leh highways. The Manali-Padum-Nimu road or Darcha-Padum-Nimu road will become all-weather after the completion of the Shinku-la tunnel. This will be the safest and shortest road to reach Leh. As Atal Tunnel, Rohtang, has bypassed 13,050ft high Rohtang pass, Shinkula pass will be the only pass on this new road. Unlike Manali-Sarchu-Leh highway which has many mountain passes, the Darcha-Padum-Nimu road has only one pass -- Shinkula pass. The Defence Ministry is concentrating more on this new road as it will facilitate in military movement even in winter months. Otherwise, both Manali-Leh and Srinagar-Leh highways get blocked following heavy snowfall for five to seven months a year. Currently, 10.02 km long Atal tunnel is the world’s longest highway tunnel above 10,000ft. After completion, Shinku-la tunnel will be the longest high altitude highway tunnel in the world above 15,000 ft. The work on the 4.1-km-long Shinku-la tunnel was expected to start in 2021, then 2022 but it started on July 26, 2024. (Please note that as of May 19, 2021, MoD has rejected the proposal of 13.5 km long tunnel from Patseo and given nod to 4.1 KM long Shinku-la
Shinku-La Tunnel or Shinkula Tunnel or Shingo-La Tunnel or Shinkun La is upcoming motorable tunnel under 16,580ft high Shinku-la pass between Himachal’s Lahaul valley and Ladakh’s Zanskar valley in Northern India. The tunnel was given principal approval in 2021 but the Union Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (February 15, 2023) gave
While the Darcha-Shinkula-Padum road is set to strengthen Indian Army at Ladakh by cutting short travel time between Manali and Kargil by one day, the Ladakh government is promoting this road to welcome tourists to the hidden valleys of the district. The word “Kargil” has been sending shivers down the spine ever since India-Pakistan war was fought in 1999. As India won the war and entire district is free from war threat due to presence of Indian Army, tourism in the area is also picking up the pace. Kargil district shares a huge border with Himachal. But the district was too far to reach by road. Now that Darcha-Shinkula-Padum road has been built, Zanskar valley of Kargil is reachable in one day from Manali and Kargil town in just two days. Now the Ladakh government is asking visitors to travel through this new road to explore the new places which were earlier unreachable. The tourism department of union territory of Ladakh is organising cultural and road shows in Himachal to promote cultural tourism in Zanskar valley and other parts of Kargil with major focus on this new road. The officials said the new road will lead visitors to hidden valleys. The officials, who organised one such cultural programme involving Ladakhi folk dance and music in Manali, said this road is going to become the foundation to new ties between Kargil and Himachal. Punchok Tashi, who looks after tourism, rural development and all affairs of Zanskar valley as an elected member of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil, said, “Many people can think that why a government and officials are promoting just a road. The reality is that this is not just a road. This is path to freedom from remoteness. Many people of Zanskar had never gone out of the valley
While the Darcha-Shinkula-Padum road is set to strengthen Indian Army at Ladakh by cutting short travel time between Manali and Kargil by one day, the Ladakh government is promoting this road to welcome tourists to the hidden valleys of the district. The word “Kargil” has been sending shivers down the spine ever since India-Pakistan war
With the Defence Ministry speeding up the exercise to connect Ladakh with a new shorter, better and safer highway, the Darcha-Shinku la-Zanskar valley road, which will become the main road to connect Ladakh with mainland, reopened one month ahead of schedule on Thursday. This road was lying closed following snowfall since October. After completing winter snow clearance operations on Manali-Sarchu-Leh and Srinagar-Zojila-Leh highways, the third road connecting Ladakh with the mainland via 16,600ft high Shinku-la also reopened on Thursday. Ministry of Defence (MoD) is spending thousands of crores on this road to make it the main road to reach Ladakh. As snow clearance on this road has completed, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) will engage in road alignment, widening, and blacktopping of the road between Darcha in Himachal and Padum in Zanskar valley of Ladakh. “Snow has been cleared from Shinku-la. We would have cleared snow much earlier but snowfall remained hampering our works in April and May. We shall now concentrate on widening and blacktopping of the highway along with building retaining and breast walls and culverts. Some bridges are also proposed to be built on the road. The work on traffic tunnel below Shinku-la is also expected to start this year,” a BRO official said. In strategic point of view, the 297-km-long Darcha-Shinku la-Padum-Nimmu road will have many advantages over other two highways which have many mountain passes and take a much longer travel time. This road passes away from both Chinese and Pakistan borders and will allow safe movement to the military convoys. The highway will become the main road for military supply in near future and will be India’s reply to China which is developing its border infrastructure. Darcha, 100km from Manali on Manali-Sarchu-Leh highway, will connect the Leh-Kargil highway at Nimmu, 35km from Leh. Over 50km
With the Defence Ministry speeding up the exercise to connect Ladakh with a new shorter, better and safer highway, the Darcha-Shinku la-Zanskar valley road, which will become the main road to connect Ladakh with mainland, reopened one month ahead of schedule on Thursday. This road was lying closed following snowfall since October. After completing winter
Having spent his all earnings and time in building 38km-long road across Shinkula pass to connect Ladakh’s Zanskar valley with Himachal’s Lahaul, the 79-year-old Tsultim Chinjor, who has been conferred with Padma Shri award, wants better road connectivity between Himachal and Zanskar. A resident of Stongdey village of remote Zanskar valley, lama Chinjor is among 102 recipients of Padma Shri this year. He has been conferred with this prestigious award for social work after his name was recommended by Kargil district administration. Lama has spent many years in Stongdey monastery and also served as a government employee. As a large number of villages in Zanskar were not connected with road and the lone road connecting Zanskar with Kargil used to get blocked after snowfall at Pensi-la pass, lama was searching for better road connectivity. Although Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had planned to connect Zanskar with Himachal via Shinkula pass, lama Chinjor was unhappy with the work progress. Finally, he took up the task to connect nearly 30 villages of the valley with Darcha village of Himachal’s Lahaul. He discussed his plan with the local residents and started raising funds. He finally started building road, for which he even sold his land, and built 38km road from Shinkula to Kargiakh. Lama started building the road on Shinkula pass on June 28, 2014 with help of a hired earthmover, jeep, labourers and ponies. BRO had built 27km of road beyond Darcha and lama started building road beyond this point. In first season, before onset of winter, Lama completed 13km of the jeepable road from Himachal and entered Zanskar. He had a lot more road to build to connect Kargiakh, the first village of Zanskar and then towards Padum. “I spent all my savings in building this road. People of Zanskar and some
Having spent his all earnings and time in building 38km-long road across Shinkula pass to connect Ladakh’s Zanskar valley with Himachal’s Lahaul, the 79-year-old Tsultim Chinjor, who has been conferred with Padma Shri award, wants better road connectivity between Himachal and Zanskar. A resident of Stongdey village of remote Zanskar valley, lama Chinjor is among
Discover Leh Ladakh has achieved another feat by becoming first to reach Zanskar valley of Ladakh using the newly built Manali Shinkula Zanskar road that has decreased the distance between Manali and Zanskar by over 630 KM. The road between Darcha in Lahaul valley of Himachal and Padum in Zanskar is being built above 16,600ft high Shinkula (Shingo-la) pass for nearly 10 years now. Although the road is not safe for general traffic movement and is still under construction, team Discover Leh Ladakh successfully reached Padum, headquarters of Zanskar, in their SUV in just one day. Otherwise, Manali to Zanskar is a four-day-long drive and it is two days drive from Leh. Zanskar is a Buddhist dominated valley in Kargil district of Ladakh. The beautiful valley which is home to a large number of huge glaciers, rivers, towering peaks and vast plateaus, is divided from Suru valley (Kargil) via Pensi-la pass. Kargil to Padum (Zanskar) is about 9 to 10 hours hectic but beautiful journey. Drang-Drung glacier and Nun Kun glaciers that almost touch the road are main attractions of this road trip. Zanskar is home to about 15,000 residents. As their culture, trade relations and religion is similar to residents of Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal, they always wanted to get connected with Himachal. Despite old Kargil-Zanskar road, the residents used to come to Manali and Lahaul after covering large distance on foot via Shinkula pass. The residents of Zanskar valley celebrated coming close to Himachal by over 630km as they welcomed the first vehicle in the valley that arrived via new road after crossing the Shinkula pass on September 3, 2019. Watching a vehicle coming into the valley from Shinkula pass, the three from Discover Leh Ladakh were given warm welcome by happy residents in many villages. The Border Roads Organization (BRO) officials,
Discover Leh Ladakh has achieved another feat by becoming first to reach Zanskar valley of Ladakh using the newly built Manali Shinkula Zanskar road that has decreased the distance between Manali and Zanskar by over 630 KM. The road between Darcha in Lahaul valley of Himachal and Padum in Zanskar is being built above 16,600ft
