Bharat Rakshak

Surat Chennai Expressway Progress In Maharashtra | October 2025 Update
Surat–Chennai Expressway is an under-construction, 1,271 km (790 mi) long, 4/6-lanes. access-controlled expressway, which will connect the second largest city of Gujarat, Surat, with the capital of Tamil Nadu, Chennai, in India. It will pass through six states: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. It will be operated and maintained by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), and will reduce both travel time and distance from around 35 hours to around 18 hours, and from approximately 1,570 km (980 mi) to 1,271 km (790 mi). It will be built at a cost of ₹ 45,000 crore.

In the highest-value inaugurations in BRO’s history, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh recently unveiled 125 border infrastructure projects worth nearly ₹5,000 crore. These projects are aimed at reducing travel time, ensuring all-weather connectivity, and enhancing operational preparedness along sensitive border areas.

^^ sorry, how is the above relevant to "Indian Roads Thread". The above is about China and levitation systems more in synch with railways than roads.

And it just sent shockwaves through China.

This video investigates:

What this “impossible” fortress actually is
Why it was built deep in the Himalayas
How India overcame altitude, weather, and supply limits
Why this changes the balance of power along the border
You’ll discover:

The strategic chokepoints this fortress controls
How infrastructure has become the new weapon in modern conflicts
Why China is paying very close attention
What this means for future tensions, deterrence, and regional stability

This isn’t just construction—it’s strategy set in concrete and steel.

Mumbai - Pune Expressway Missing Link | Full On-Ground Project Update
This video is a rare, on-ground deep dive into the Mumbai–Pune Expressway Missing Link project, filmed directly from the construction site with full access to its most critical components. We visited the actual alignment, covered all major tunnels, bridge sections, and engineering zones, and documented the progress using our own camera crew to ensure authenticity and accuracy. This is not a desk-based update every frame comes from the site itself.

The video features a comprehensive round-up of the project, including guided walkthroughs of the tunnels, explanations of construction methodology, geological challenges, safety systems, and the logic behind the project’s design. We also bring you an on-camera interaction with project engineers and officials, offering first-hand insights into execution timelines, engineering complexity, and why this link is one of the most technically challenging road projects in India.

Once completed, the Missing Link is expected to significantly improve safety, reduce travel time, and eliminate the ghat bottleneck on the Mumbai–Pune corridor. This video aims to document not just progress, but the scale of engineering, planning, and effort that goes into building critical national infrastructure. If you want to understand how such mega projects are actually built on the ground beyond headlines and render visuals this is a detailed, field-level perspective worth watching.

The 13.1 km long Zoji La tunnel is nearing a breakthrough with 925m left to tunnel from the Kargil end. Tunneling is done from the Sonamarg/Kashmir end. MEIL is the principal tunneling contractor. Breakthrough is expected by late April or early May providing all weather connectivity with Kargil and Leh from Srinagar. The tunnel bypasses the 11,200 ft Zoji la pass that remains snow bound in winter. Zoji La tunnel is a strategic tunnel and approach roads are done to the tunnel and also snow galleries to protect the road from avalanches and heavy snow fall. Three ventilation shafts are also being dug of which one is complete. The shafts are between 200m to 500m. Tunnel lining has also started with 3 km already lined from the Sonamarg/Kashmir end. MEIL is optimistic that the tunnel will be completely ready by March 2028, and have advanced the date of finishing from Dec 2028. The tunnel will be available for emergency use to transport sick people from Kargil by ambulance before the date of finish and also if the Army desires to use it for an emergency. When the tunnel is complete, a three hour treacherous drive over the Zoji la pass will be shortened to 20 mins through the tunnel.

I am sure the breakthrough will be huge news in a few weeks. Just jumping the gun here.

Tunneling has been going on 24x7 through the winter where the night temps reach -25 Celsius and daytime to -15 Celsius. The very latest update from a week ago is that 850m left for a breakthrough. Possibly they may breakthrough by mid April, let us see. Solves a lot of the logistics problems for the Army in supplying Ladakh as currently they have to move lot of supplies in summer as in winter Zoji La pass closes for 2-3 months.

This month the new Saraighat bridge across the Brahmaputra at Guwahati a 4 lane bridge is due to be inaugurated. Prior to 1963and esp. during the 1962 war there was no good bridge across the Brahmaputra making logistics very difficult. In June 1963, the old Saraighat bridge was inaugurated by Nehru. It was a road cum rail bridge. Today there are 7 bridges across the Brahmaputra and with the inauguration of the new Saraighat bridge there will be 8. In addition a 19km bridge is being built across the Brahmaputra to connect Meghalaya and the north/west bank of the Brahmaputra, making movement to the BD border easier. This is the Dhubri Phulbari bridge. L&T is executing this bridge.
A tunnel is also being planned under the Brahmaputra to connect Tezpur which is an Army corps HQ with the South bank of the Brahmaputra. This will take some time. So this will take the bridges across the Brahmaputra eventually to 9. There is also a very long viaduct on the anvil through Kaziranga rhino park obviating the need for the road through the park. This road gets flooded by the Brahmaputra often and causes problems for wildlife seeking to go to higher ground with road kill also. The viaduct will address the road getting flooded and also allow free movement to the wildlife when flooding happens which is very, very often.

New Saraighat bridge, the old bridge has the railway tracks below the roadway. This is the 1963 bridge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uKrBdsDD-A

The 9th bridge under construction by L&T

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPnfP_H5u68

More on the tunnel under the Brahmaputra(it will be a road cum rail tunnel)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymknv1Gc0FU

Latest update on the Zoji La tunnel. See also ^^^

A video posted by the Tribune newspaper which is a day old, states as per MEIL (prime contractors for the tunnel) project managers interviewed for the video that now 700-750m is left for breakthrough for the 13.1 km tunnel. Tunneling is being carried out from both the Baithal/Kashmir end and Minamarg/Kargil end. Tunneling of 6km+ has been completed from the Baithal end and even tunnel lining started and completed for about 3km from this end. Tunneling is active now from the Kargil end for the final breakthrough expected in late April or early May as per the people interviewed in the video from MEIL.

My gyaan: Tunneling in the unstable geology of the Himalayas of fractured and young rocks is slow, with about 3m per day sometimes considered good progress. Faster tunneling can be undertaken if the contractor is confident that the rock strata can be stabilized soon after excavating and faster mucking out, that is removing the debris after excavation. Principally the contractor must be applying modern methods like NATM(New Austrian tunneling method).

There are three shafts to be also dug for ventilation for the tunnel. As of August 2024 this was the situation, my impression is the shafts may be complete:

The eastern shaft (213m) (Kargil end) was reported as completed, while the central shaft (385m) was partially excavated to 125m, and the western shaft (480m) (Kashmir end) was excavated to 266m.

All approach roads, bridges etc from the Sonamarg/Z Morh tunnel, snow galleries and cut and cover work to the portal of the Zoji La tunnel is complete. All that remains is the main tunnel. Besides a terrorist attack at Sonamarg, the extreme cold temps of -20 Celsius hamper work and it plunges to -30 Celsius at night but work is carried out 24 hours. Curing concrete is also an issue and additives have to be used to make sure the concrete cures properly in this bitter cold and the batching plant has to operate properly to supply the concrete, and transportation in the bitter cold from the batching plant to the pumping site at the tunnel is clearly an issue. At the Se La tunnel in Tawang which was opened a year ago to provide all weather connectivity to Tawang, the dampness in the tunnel under the Se La pass hampered BRO to complete the tunnel in the required time as the concrete would not cure properly.



Also by code in India there has to be an escape tunnel parallel to the main tunnel for all tunnels whose length exceeds 1.5km for road tunnels and 3km for railway tunnels. So Metro tunnels cannot be longer than 3km or it will violate code.

This is the 1994 code that covers all aspects of tunneling in India, lining, lighting, mucking etc etc:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... E_HmDPyErZ

Here is the Tribune video, breakthrough at Zoji La soon in about 9 weeks:(Meil has assured elsewhere and in the video, tunnel will be complete by Feb 2028)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUN7xM8T27c

Post breakthough and stabilization, lining work has to be completed, lighting, ventilation systems, security systems, CCTV cameras, so cabling for all the electrical systems and fire control systems will have to be installed. Lastly road paving and signage.

Here are the official code numbers for tunneling in India
Safety,, including emergency egress (escape tunnels/cross-passages), is primarily governed by
IS 4756: 1978 (Safety Code for Tunneling Work) and the IS 5878 series (Code of Practice for Construction of Tunnels). These standards dictate requirements for safe evacuation, lighting, ventilation, and emergency, though international standards like NFPA/PIARC are often used for modern fire-safety requirements.
Key codes regarding safety and escape routes:

IS 4756: 1978: Sets the fundamental safety code for tunneling work, including emergency procedures.
IS 5878-2-2 (1971): Covers requirements for ventilation, lighting, and safe passage for underground excavation.
IS 17883: 2022: Provides guidelines for geological exploration for tunnels.

After blasting there is a wait of 2-3 hours to vent out noxious fumes and dust. Post that a thin layer of shotcrete is applied to immediately stabilize the tunnel. Then surveying is done to make sure the tunnel is moving along the desired alignment or if additional blasting is needed. If the alignment is satisfactory, rockbolts which are steel nails 3-6m and 23-50mm in diameter which must be drilled into the stable rock from the tunnel surface stabilize the tunnel further and steel arches are also placed to aid stability in poor rock. The length depends on how weak and fractured the rock is. This process of stabilization is very time consuming and has to be repeated every cycle in the NATM method. Post stabilization a moisture barrier is first applied to the tunnel.

Moisture barriers in tunnels are primarily made from flexible, durable polymeric sheets and coatings designed to withstand high hydrostatic pressure and resist chemicals, aging, and low temperatures. The most common materials include polyvinyl chloride (PVC), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), and ethylene-propylene rubber blends (EPDM). You might have noticed these as yellow sheets and sort of look like the material of inflatable boats. Post putting these moisture barriers, concrete is applied as a liner.

Vsunder et al., what steps would be taken to prevent VBIED attacks in these critical tunnels? I assume the impact of such an attack would be catastrophic. Is the plan to physically inspect every civilian vehicle before it passes through? Would those delays essentially negate the benefit of reduced travel times?

Anoop wrote: ↑21 Feb 2026 10:45 Vsunder et al., what steps would be taken to prevent VBIED attacks in these critical tunnels? I assume the impact of such an attack would be catastrophic. Is the plan to physically inspect every civilian vehicle before it passes through? Would those delays essentially negate the benefit of reduced travel times?

No they will not check each vehicle, though random inspections are going on at Z Morh tunnel that leads to Zoji La so ditto for Zoji La. They have a ITMS running, Integrated Traffic Management System. CCTV and drone surveillance are part of this system for Z Morh and a similar system will be installed at Zoji La.

Other Himalayan tunnel projects are.

1. Shinku La tunnel which at 16,580 ft is the highest road tunnel in the world connecting Lahaul valley in HP to Zanskar valley in Ladakh. Started in July 2024 and a realistic view is that this 4.1km tunnel will be done by 2028.

2. Shyok tunnel inaugurated in Dec 2025, on Darbuk DBO road in Ladakh 920m. Improves our posture in Ladakh.

3. 4 tunnels on the Golden Arc, NH 144A Akhnoor Poonch sector. 3 out of 4 breakthroughs has happened. These 3 should open this year. 4th one next year end or by June 2027.

Naushera Tunnel (700 meters): Breakthrough achieved on January 28, 2024.
Sungal Tunnel (2.79 km): Breakthrough achieved on May 15, 2024.
Kandi Tunnel (260 meters): Breakthrough achieved on November 25, 2023.

Last one is 1.1 km Bhimber Galli tunnel and breakthrough is expected mid year. It will be perhaps commissioned by mid year next year. Saves 10.8km of driving through currently a very treacherous Himalayan road.

These tunnels lie on the 200km road NH 144A which is being improved to a proper 2 lane road. This road is very important for strategic reasons vis-a-vis Pakistan and the tunnels bypass highly landslide prone zones and also shorten driving time and avoid sections with sharp curves and steep gradients.

^^^ The Shinku La or Shingo La tunnel will be superseded by another road tunnel at an even higher altitude. Currently the road to DBO(Daulat Beg Oldi) is the DS-DBO road, Darbuk-Shyok-DBO road on which the new Shyok tunnel (see above) 920m was opened in December 2025. This road is too close to the McMahon Line/LAC and the government wants a secure road away from the LAC. Towards this end it is building a parallel road from Leh to DBO. This road is 70% complete last I heard and the rumor was that it will complete Dec 2026. The road has been tested for 40 tonne axle loads and Bofors guns have been taken over it. Later bridges on it will be upgraded to 70 tonnes for heavier armor if need be. This road currently joins the DS DBO road at Murgo and then on to DBO.

BRO is now at the planning stage to build an 8km tunnel through Sasser La on this new road parallel to the DS DBO road at 17,660 ft higher than the Shinku La tunnel. The new route cuts the distance from Leh to DBO from 322 km to 243km allowing access to DBO from Leh in 11-12 hours, it can take more than 24 hours now to reach DBO from Leh. Once the tunnel is built it will make the new road all weather.


Regarding the Shinku La tunnel 4.1km mentioned above in my previous post, between Lahaul HP and Zanskar Ladakh, again it is a safer route away from LAC etc for movement of logistics. The distance from Manali to Leh will be shortened by 60km and provides a faster alternative to the Manali-Leh-Kargil route. The distance is shortened from 355km to 295 km. It enables the Nimmu-Padam-Darcha axis, which will be the shortest and fastest route to Leh with a saving of 5-6 hours. Large parts of this Nimmu(in Ladakh) --Padam(HQ of Zanskar valley, Ladakh) ---Darcha(in HP) road are ready and it is the Shinku La tunnel that is the main obstacle to full completion and all weather capability. BRO is overseeing the Shinku La tunnel as well as the Golden Arc tunnels I mentioned earlier all 4 of them on NH 144A on the Akhnoor-Poonch sector. Again here the delay in opening 3 out of the 4 tunnels right away is the approach roads to the tunnels and the attendant LA which is being delayed by the local revenue officials who have been slow in giving he requisite compensation to the locals. Once this is done BRO can finish the works quickly. Nevertheless I believe the Nowshera tunnel is open. News of many critical projects are rare to come by due to the massive outrage on twitter and national news media on stupid things, while the really important stuff does not make it to anywhere..

Manali is to be connected by a railway line to the Indian IR network. Work is ongoing for the first 60km Bhanupalli--Bilaspur(HP)--Bheri section. However the project is moving slowly as the Congress HP government has been slow with LA. There are numerous tunnels already on this section a majority of which are done. This is part of the announced project to build a railway line to Leh. Beyond Bheri the line is supposed to go to Mandi(which has an IIT) and then on to Manali in HP. Here is the latest Dec 2025 on the LA issue of the HP government on a project of strategic importance.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cit ... 989461.cms

To be more elaborate: After Manali one goes through the Rohtang/Atal tunnel now and avoids the high Rohtang pass. Past this, there are three more high mountain passes that close in the winter on the road to Leh. Instead at Darcha in HP, one will bifurcate and go on the new NPD axis(Nimmu--Padum--Darcha axis) when complete. Then after Darcha will enter the Shinku La tunnel(currently you have to climb very steeply to the snowbound Shinku La pass) and emerge into the Zanskar valley. Then it is a 102 km partly unpaved and narrow road to Padum, district HQ of Kargil. This road is being widened to two lane standard National highway standards with shoulders capable of allowing heavy machinery and artillery and tanks to go through. From Padum it is a 156 km road to Nimmu (Ladakh) that has been freshly laid to 2 lane NHAI standards with shoulders and capable of allowing heavy trucks, artillery and armor to pass through. At Nimmu there is a Y junction. One arm goes to Leh 35km. The other one goes to Kargil and through the under construction Zoji La tunnel to Srinagar via the recently completed Z Morh tunnel. So what is left is the construction of the Shinku La tunnel and the upgradation of the Padum to Darcha road through the under construction Shinku La tunnel. Blasting of the rocks is taking place to widen this 102km road concurrent with Shinku La tunnel construction. So instead of climbing three more very high mountain passes from Manali to Leh, there will no more mountain passes to climb through the Rohtang and Shinku La tunnels promising all weather connectivity from both Manali and Srinagar(via Zoji La tunnel) to Leh and Kargil. This Nimmu is where the Indus meets the Zanskar river.

Shinku La tunnel is twin tube so 4 laned through that tunnel.

The two arms of the Pune-Mumbai Expressway Missing link project are finally connected, so someone can walk across from the Mumbai to Pune end. Concrete has to be poured into the final deck slab piece and tensioning of the final cables has to be done. After that are finishing works, crash barriers, final asphalt layers and painting of lane markers and lights. The tunnels at the ends of this cable stayed bridge including the 8.9km tunnel under Lonavala lake are ready. The tunnel goes roughly 100m under Lonavala lake.

MH govt had planned to open this cable stayed bridge that rises 100m above Tiger Valley on MH day May 1. The towers supporting the cables are as tall as a 60 storey building, 189m. It will definitely ease traffic on the winding Khandala ghat and more importantly reduce accidents and traffic closures due to landslides and save some distance and a significant time in travel between Mumbai and Pune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2HNrA2CLKQ

Kanpur to Lucknow expressway, at 63 km the shortest expressway in India is also almost done with finishing works taking place in a 350m brownfield section at Lucknow which was held up for months due to the problem of shifting HT wires. Scheduled opening is April 1 and from 2 .5 hours on the current 4 lane highway, this limited access expressway will make Kanpur to Lucknow travel time 40minutes. Out of 63 km 47km is greenfield. Eventually the expressway will connect to the under construction Kanpur ring road.

Bengal Transfers 7 Highways: How Centre’s Hold On Chicken’s Neck Will Boost Rail Infra, Border Security

CM Suvendu Adhikari-led Bengal government has decided to hand over seven stretches of national highways to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).

Following Nabanna’s in-principle approval, a long-pending deadlock over several national highway projects has been resolved.

WHAT THE STATE NOD MEANS

Responsibility for key roads, including NH-31, NH-33 and NH-312, will now go to NHAI. NHIDCL will oversee projects such as the Sevok–Coronation Bridge stretch, Hasimara–Jaigaon route and Changrabandha corridor.

These projects had reportedly been awaiting approval from the state government for nearly a year. With clearance now granted, the central agencies will be able to begin road development work at an accelerated pace.

The move is expected to strengthen connectivity across North Bengal and improve links with the Bangladesh and Bhutan borders. The state government claims the decision will significantly improve transport infrastructure in the Darjeeling hills, Dooars and other border areas.

The Chief Secretary has issued the official directive.

WHERE EXACTLY IS CHICKEN’S NECK?

The “Chicken’s Neck" (officially known as the Siliguri Corridor) is a narrow, 22-kilometer-wide strip of land in northern West Bengal, India. It is located around the city of Siliguri and connects mainland India to its eight northeastern states.

It is highly significant because if this corridor were cut off, nearly 50 million people and crucial military logistics in the Northeast would be isolated.

Geographically, it acts as a tight chokepoint flanked by three international borders:

West: Nepal
North: Bhutan
South: Bangladesh