インド、ヒマラヤにトンネル建設　係争地で中国に対抗

【アタル・ロータントンネルＡＦＰ＝時事】インドは、中国との係争地があるヒマラヤ山脈でトンネル建設工事の最終段階を迎えている。完成すれば中国との国境に移動するまでの時間が大幅に短縮される。（写真はインドのヒマチャルプラデシュ州で建設中のアタル・ロータントンネル）
　いずれも核保有国であるインドと中国は今年６月、ヒマラヤ高地で衝突し、インド側に２０人の死者、中国側に人数不明の死傷者が出た。両国は互いに相手国に原因があると非難している。
　両国は国境付近に大規模な増援部隊を送っているが、インドは前線のみならず、後方での活動も一段と強化している。
　インドのインフラ増強計画には、道路や橋のみならず、高地のヘリパッドや、軍民共用の仮設滑走路の建設も含まれている。
　一番の目玉は、ヒマチャルプラデシュ州で約４億ドル（約４２０億円）をかけて建設中のトンネルだ。天候に関係なく軍用車の通行が可能になるため、地滑りが多く冬は雪に覆われる５０キロの道のりを徒歩で移動する必要がなくなる。
　今まで標高の高い曲がりくねった道を４時間かけて移動していたが、今月下旬からは最先端技術を用いたこのトンネルによりわずか１０分で済むようになる。
　インドの国境道路庁（ＢＲＯ）長官はＡＦＰに対し、「ルート上の車両故障で６＆＃１２３１６・８時間も続く渋滞が発生したことが複数回あった」とした上で、「このトンネルをはじめとするインフラ計画で軍の部隊をとりまく環境は大きく変わる」と語った。
　しかし、インドは中国の後を追っているだけだと専門家らは指摘する。
　ニューデリーのシンクタンク、オブザーバー・リサーチ・ファウンデーションのハルシュ・パント氏は、「歴代の政権は２０年も無駄にしてきた」と話し、「中国とそのインフラは以前よりずっと強くなっている」と指摘した。 【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/09/21-12:25）

A tunnel nearing completion in the Indian Himalayas will slash by hours the time it takes troops to reach the Chinese border, part of an infrastructure blitz by New Delhi that is gathering pace since a bloody border clash.
The nuclear-armed Asian giants blame each other for a brutal high-altitude battle in June that left 20 Indian soldiers dead and an unspecified number of Chinese casualties.
Both have sent massive troop reinforcements, but India has also stepped up its activities behind the frontlines -- belatedly so, analysts say.
Its stepped-up infrastructure programme includes roads and bridges as well as high-altitude helipads and airstrips for civilian and military aircraft.
The showpiece is a $400-million tunnel in Himachal Pradesh state, providing an all-weather route for military convoys to avoid a 50-kilometre (30-mile) trudge through mountain passes that are snow-bound in winter and subject to frequent landslides.
From late this month, what used to be a four-hour, winding, high-altitude crossing will be cut to a 10-minute dash through the mountains in the state-of-the-art tunnel.
There have been times on the pass route when vehicles have broken down, causing traffic jams of even six to eight hour, said Lieutenant-General Harpal Singh, head of India's Border Roads Organisation (BRO).
This tunnel and the other infrastructure plans change a lot for the troops, he told AFP.
- Engineering feat -
Labourers are working overtime to get the tunnel ready before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to open it later this month.
Currently, essential items such as arms, ammunition and food have to be transported up in bulk before winter starts in an area where temperatures can plunge to minus 40 Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit).
Constructed at an altitude of more than 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) and stretching nine kilometres (six miles), the Atal Rohtang tunnel is also a feat of engineering.
A decade in the making, freezing winter temperatures meant work could only take place from April to September. Workers wore special microchips to help locate them if they got trapped in an avalanche.
Still, India's efforts only belatedly mirror those of China, experts say.
Earlier administrations wasted two decades, said Harsh Pant, from the Observer Research Foundation think-tank in New Delhi.
China, and its infrastructure, is much stronger today.
- Training the locals -
Sanjay Kundu, the Himachal Pradesh police chief, has also proposed arming locals and training them to report possible Chinese spies and drone and helicopter sightings.
Ultimately, whether it is at the border or the hinterland, people need to be trained and they need to be trained in defending themselves, he told AFP.
The government hopes it will reassure worried villagers.
In the last few weeks they've seen a lot more activity of fighter planes over the region, said Lobsang Gyaltsen, an elected representative from a village around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border.
They often wonder if China is attacking, Gyaltsen told AFP.
- Tanks -
The BRO says it has built more strategic roads -- most in the high-tension zone next to China -- the last four years than in the previous decade and aims to complete 15 more key routes by the end of 2021.
Labourers are upgrading a recently-completed 250-kilometre stretch parallel to the Chinese frontier that cuts journey times from Ladakh's capital Leh from one week to less than a day.
Significantly, by next month all bridges along the route will be able to support the weight of a 70-tonne T-90 tank on a trailer, or a truck carrying a surface-to-air missile, according to press reports.
There are several strategic high-altitude tunnels as well as 125 bridges at different stages of planning in the states of Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim bordering Tibet and Xinjiang.
Besides the strategic value, the improvements will also be life-changing for people who can be cut off from the rest of India for months in winter.
This will boost the local economy and attract more people to the sparsely populated area, and so make it less prone to cross-border incursions by the Chinese, the government hopes.