NEW DELHI: Since the times of yore, the sheer geographical challenge of the mighty Zojila pass, the fact that it cut off Ladakh from the Kashmir Valley for about 135 days from November-end to mid-April and made the Ladakh region vulnerable to potential Pakistani and Chinese incursions, has been a huge worry for India’s military establishment.
But on Saturday, the pass—loosely translated as the ‘pass of blizzards’, at 3,550 metres altitude—opened for vehicular use for the first time in its history in March, widening the window of use for the fast transporting of soldiers and military material to the susceptible Ladakh region in case of emergencies not to speak of the immense relief to the people of the region.
“The renewed focus on infrastructure development of border areas mandated requirement of keeping the closure of ZojiLa Pass to the minimum… The Pass was opened on 19 Mar 2022 and trial vehicle passed through it towards Kargil, thereby bringing much needed relief to the people of Ladakh,” said a communiqué by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO)
This year the pass was kept open till January 4, 2022, and snow clearance operations were started on February 15 before the connectivity was initially established on March 3, after which improvement of the road surface was carried out for safe passage of vehicles facilitating the availability of essential goods and supplies and also assisting in the movement of army convoys.
A recently tabled report by the parliamentary standing committee on defence had said: “Considering the prevalent situation on LAC, BRO kept the crucial Zojila axis open till 04 Jan 2022. This is the first time that the axis was kept open so long providing much-needed connectivity to the forces deployed in Ladakh. This is also the first time that the Zojila Pass has been opened in the month of February against traditional norms of Apr/May, shrinking the time of closure of pass from 4-5 months to less than 2 months.”