By Zarak Khan | 2026-01-07

India is accelerating construction of the Zojila Tunnel in the western Himalayas, a key project in New Delhi's effort to strengthen border infrastructure in the Ladakh region and narrow its logistical gap with China along their disputed border.

The 13.25km-long tunnel will provide the first all-weather road link between the Kashmir Valley and the high-altitude Ladakh region. Completion is expected in about two years, the Wall Street Journal reported in December.

Once complete, it will allow the Indian military to move troops, tanks and heavy weaponry year-round to forward positions near the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto and heavily militarized boundary separating the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

Each winter, heavy snowfall renders the Zojila Pass, situated at 3,505 meters, impassable for almost five months.

New Delhi has moved to accelerate the project, inaugurated in 2018, to counter China's extensive road and rail networks on the Tibetan Plateau.

India and China share a 3,380km-long border that remains undefined across long stretches and has been a persistent source of military and diplomatic tension.

Rapid troop deployment

The Zojila Pass has transitioned from a seasonal bottleneck to a central pillar of India's national security.

During the winters, Ladakh effectively becomes a strategic island, dependent on costly airlifts to sustain both its civilian population and the tens of thousands of troops deployed along the frontier facing China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).

In contrast, China has leveraged its extensive road, rail and logistics network on the Tibetan Plateau to maintain year-round mobility.

This disparity has allowed Chinese forces to rush reinforcements to contested areas within hours, while Indian units have historically required several days to move comparable resources.

The Zojila Tunnel is part of a broader strategy to close critical gaps exposed by deadly clashes with Chinese forces in Galwan Valley in Ladakh in 2020, Indian security analysts said.

The clashes left 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead, marking the worst violence along the LAC in decades and the first combat fatalities since 1975.

The hand-to-hand fighting at altitudes of about 4,270 meters forced a "dramatic shift in thinking" within the Indian government, according to Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amrit Pal Singh, a former chief of operational logistics in Ladakh.

"We realized we needed to change our total approach," Maj. Gen. Singh told the Wall Street Journal on December 24.

All-weather access

The Zojila Tunnel is intended to eliminate that imbalance by providing year-around road access to Ladakh, say Indian officials.

Crossing the Zojila Pass can take up to three hours in favorable conditions. The tunnel will reduce the journey to about 20 minutes, India's Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in 2023.

"Of the tunnel's total length of 13.25km, excavation has been completed on 12km, with about 1km remaining," Harpal Singh, joint chief operating officer of Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd., told the New Indian Express in December.

The company is confident the tunnel will be fully connected from both ends by May, said Harpal Singh. Following the breakthrough, construction will accelerate on "finishing, lining and safety installations," he said.

"If no major unforeseen problems arise, the tunnel is expected to be completed between May and September 2028," he added.

Once completed, the tunnel is expected to significantly enhance the Indian army's capacity for "rapid deployment along the western border with Pakistan and eastern Ladakh bordering China," the Tribune (India) reported on December 28.

At present, snow routinely blocks both surface routes to Ladakh, via Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, in winter.

Countering China

China's expanding infrastructure network along the LAC, as well as in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, has "raised the real spectre of a two-front war and increased India's encirclement concerns," according to a 2024 analysis by the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think-tank.

"China has adopted a collaborative approach to build this infrastructure, and also provided military assistance to Pakistan," the report said.

"To counter the growing encirclement of its northern territory by China ... India has embarked on mega multimodal connectivity projects in the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh," it added.

The infrastructure drive extends well beyond the Zojila Tunnel.

India has steadily expanded a network of tunnels, bridges, roads, and airfields across Ladakh to support the rapid mobilization of forces in one of the world's most hostile high-altitude environments.

In November, India inaugurated the Mudh-Nyoma Air Force Station in eastern Ladakh, a high-elevation airfield 35km from the Chinese border.

New Delhi is also expediting the modernization of the Darbuk–Shyok–Daulat Beg Oldie road, a logistical artery that underpins high-altitude military operations and strengthens India's forward presence along the LAC.