A new manali-leh road? is it true?

[BHARAT]

don't remember, but recently read at two different reports that there is road construction going on between darcha-padum and padum-nimmu, so with help of rohtang tunnel it can be all weather road like this – manali – rohtang tunnel-darcha-padum-nimmu-leh ; bypassing almost all major passes.

Is this true?

[deepaktomar]

yes its true but i dont know the exact places where the tunnel crosses , i see the tunnel work in progress at solang valley 4 years back and last year also god knows how much time it takes.

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Yup, it has been under work for several years now. It is supposed to be a 12 month route once it is fully completed, however it is far from being completed as of now and would take a few years more.

[BHARAT]

But YS, my only worry is after that route, BRO may not maintain the current route, and we might loose the original MLH, as well as more tourists at leh and may be shopping at khardung la, bath at pangong,camel safari in nubra!!!!

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by Yogesh Sarkar

and would take a few years more.

More like a few decades!

Originally Posted by BHARAT

But YS, my only worry is after that route, BRO may not maintain the current route, and we might loose the original MLH, as well as more tourists at leh and may be shopping at khardung la, bath at pangong,camel safari in nubra!!!!

You have no reason to worry! Not in this lifetime!
I have seen road alignments being worked on for over a decade and they are nowhere near to completion!
Doesn't the state of the Srinagar-Leh road tell you enough about how much gets done in sixty years?! And that is THE primary defence route for almost the entire border in the North!
Best not to even mention the 'road' to Siachen!

[KurtRules]

The padum-darcha stretch might be motorable quite soon...In fact i ve even heard that there have been some who have tried to cross it on motor operated two wheels, unsuccessfull though!

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Bharat, the new route would take some time to develop. I agree that once it is completed, at least the Darcha - Leh’s condition would deteriorate, but it would be a blessing in disguise for those who love off road riding and adventure tourers.

As for more tourists heading to Ladakh, it is already happening and even if we the tourist traffic increase many folds, there will still be plenty of places in Ladakh which will remain relatively untouched as majority of the tourists taking the easy routes would like to go to places which are easy to access as well.

Vaibhav I don't think any one has tried it yet as the blasting has not even completed, let alone the roads being laid.

[Isakov]

Whether building of road from Padum to Nimmu is finished? If is not present, whether building by October 2009 can be finished?

[d50alchemy]

Yeah, this tunnel will start somewhere ahead of Solang Nallah and comes out at Sissu if i'm not mistaken.
As for the Darcha - Padum road, it's just a track till some village about 6 or 7 kms ahead as of last year. The moment you start climbing from Darcha you will see a track breaking from the left. From Nimmu the road is till Chilling - I rode on this road but not uptil Chilling and it was very, very desolate, quiet and ethereal. Well that goes for any road in Ladakh I guess.

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Lol but quite true, I too had taken the road to Chilling and it was quite nice. Once the route is complete, it ought to be fun.