Itanagar,Apr.5 (ANI): Proving right its motto "Shrmaen Sabatra Sdahyam, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), through its painstaking efforts, has finally provided road connectivity to the porous Tama Chung Chung sector in the Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China.
Among the large number of roads being built under Project Arunank, the most critical road in terms of strategic significance as well as remote area connectivity is the Nacho-Tama Chung Chung (TCC) road. The TCC is located at the confluence of the Taksing and Maja valleys and hence acts as gateway to both valleys.
"For further development of roads leading towards Taksing and Maja, connectivity to the TCC was an inescapable necessity. The TCC is also locally referred to as the "Land of Snakes", Project Arunank's Chief Engineer Brigadier H.K.Pokhriyal told ANI over telephone today while returning from the site.
Appropriately, the TCC is located in an extremely remote area with rugged terrain, thick vegetation, steep hard rock mountains slopes, inhospitable weather with incessant precipitation and negligible local resources. Owing to the above factors, the TCC has remained inaccessible since 2009.
The road from Nacho upto Shere Thapa and from TCC upto Karu Siko junction was completed by 2009. The balance stretch of 10-km road was most crucial to establish connectivity to the TCC. The alignment of this road is along the mighty Subansiri River upto Gelensiniak from where it bifurcated towards TCC. As a result of persistent efforts by Project Arunank, work on this road started in 2009. As already brought out, this stretch is located in extreme remote area with rugged and hazardous terrain owing to thick vegetation, near vertical mountain face with fractured hard rock posing a great risk to road construction.
The area is also plagued by problems like heavy rainfall, malaria, unreliable lines of communication with Shere Thapa at a distance of 800-km from Guwahati from where all the construction stores are to be transported. TCC could be maintained only by air. Air effort was totally unreliable owing to poor weather conditions and narrow valleys which are not conducive for flying, he disclosed.
Construction of this road was taken up by 128 road construction company, part of 23 BRTF under Project Arunank in May 2009. Work commenced both from the Shere Thapa end and from air maintained detachment at TCC end simultaneously.
The formation being hard layered fractured rock with thick jungles and unstable strata, BRO had to blast its way through the entire stretch. Site conditions were indeed treacherous and definitely not for the faint hearted. Fractured hard rock made the working extremely hazardous with height of cut ranging between 15-30-meters. Huge boulders continuously came crashing down in an unpredictable manner giving no reaction time to working parties.
The BRO committed to develop roads in remote areas since its inception in 1960, not only cater to defence needs, but also to boost the socio-economic development of the people living in far-flung border areas to contribute to nation building.
Owing to the strategic significance of Arunachal Pradesh, the BRO has the largest presence with four projects deployed for building and improving roads. Project Arunank located at Naharlagun covers Upper Subansiri, Lower Subansiri, Kurung Kumey, Kra Dadi and Papumpare districts.
