2 Bidders for Saser La Tunnel’s DPR Work in Ladakh

RITES Ltd. and Segmental Consulting & Infrastructure Advisory Pvt. Ltd. are the 2 firms that have bid for preparing Saser La Tunnel’s Detailed Project Report (DPR).

This strategic tunnel in Ladakh by the Border Roads Organization (BRO) will be at least 10 kms long and connect Sasoma with Murgo through the glaciated Saser La (view on Google Maps).

The project is part of the Indian government’s plan to build 100 km of tunnels to provide all weather road connectivity to border areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and Line of Control (LOC) with Pakistan.

BRO invited tenders for this consultancy service in December 2021 with a Rs. 9,49,68,000 estimate and 548 day (1.5 year) completion deadline. Technical bids were opened on Saturday.

Brief Scope: Consultancy Services for Preparation of Detailed Project Report and providing Pre-Construction activities for Construction of Highway Tunnel including approaches across SaserLa pass on Sasoma-Saserla-Brangsa Road, in the Union Territory of Ladakh

The bids have now been sent for technical bid evaluation which can take a couple months to complete. When that is done, the financial bids of the technically qualified bidders will be opened to reveal who’s the lowest bidder and most likely consultant.

Here’s Nitin Gokhale’s take on this route:

…the new axis will connect Sasoma to DBO via the high mountain pass at Saser La (see map). In the past this road has been attempted but was abandoned because of difficult terrain and limited working season. Temperatures at Saser La (over 18000 feet) often dip to minus 40-45 in winter. Once the Sasoma-Saser La road gets activated, India will have an alternate axis to access Depsang plains and not just depend upon the DS-DBO road that mostly runs parallel to the LAC.

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– TMRG