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Business News/ Politics / News/  Cutting through white noise
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Cutting through white noise

Cutting through white noise

The Rolba 1500, a snow cutter, tears through a mound of snow on the way to Marhi. Ramesh Pathania/MintPremium

The Rolba 1500, a snow cutter, tears through a mound of snow on the way to Marhi. Ramesh Pathania/Mint

Major S.K. Anthony is a man in a hurry, impatient with deadlines. He and his team have the Herculean task of opening up the busy Manali-Leh highway to enable free movement of army vehicles and people. It’s a tough, though not impossible, project, but Anthony is unfazed. A civil engineer trained at the Indian Army’s Officers Training Academy in Chennai, with 13 years’ experience with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), he is sufficiently prepared for the job.

The Rolba 1500, a snow cutter, tears through a mound of snow on the way to Marhi. Ramesh Pathania/Mint

After getting the required permissions from his senior, colonel Yogesh Nair, Anthony allowed me to accompany him in a BRO jeep. Our journey started from the BRO Road Construction Company’s rear detachment office at Bhang, 45km from Kullu, at 2pm. A clear blue sky greeted us as we took out the Maruti Gypsy King, which has a track record of conquering steep inclines.

The two passes that were to be cleared were Rohtang, which is 51km, and Baralacha, 195km, both above 13,000ft.

“High-speed cold winds, the bright sun reflecting on the snow, sub-zero temperatures which dip below -30 degrees (Celsius), all impede progress," Anthony told me, driving uphill on a road that had snow mounting on both sides.

Anthony’s team uses an assortment of equipment, from imported snow cutters by brands such as Rolba and Schmidt, to indigenous bulldozers of varying capacity. Tata and Hitachi excavators and snow-friendly vehicles to ferry fuel and manpower complete the list.

We encountered the first roadblock within 45 minutes of starting out. Because the communication network is poor at those heights, it was impossible to call for the bulldozers or snow cutters already at work on the road ahead. After trying to shovel snow out of our path for the Gypsy to pass through—and failing—I convinced Anthony that it was all right for me to walk the 7-odd kilometres in the cold zone. Anthony looked at my sneakers with some scepticism—all his men were in heavy-duty snow boots—but let me tag along.

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When we started walking, it was hard to imagine that before the snow arrived, there were regular tar roads, and dhabas selling piping hot food on this route. After a steep climb, we reached Marhi, where we could see snowcaps ending where the clouds began, or so it seemed. The snow cutter and BRO’s General Reserve Engineer Force (Gref) workers were already at work.

As I was taking in the sight of a few Gref workers frying bread pakodas under an open sky in sub-zero temperatures, the snow was upon us in seconds. Anthony asked for a Rolba snow cutter to start work, but it got stuck in a pit on the road. We could see that it would be difficult to proceed to Rohtang that day and Anthony decided to head back to Bhang.

On our trek back to Bhang, I asked Anthony about the qualities jawans and officers in these parts need to possess. “Anyone who can brave the weather—live in an area where more than 222km is avalanche-prone, where snow accumulates to as much as 60ft—is qualified," he replied.

Walking through the snowfall for nearly 2 hours, noiselessly, nearly numb, I was relieved to see our jeep. But my joy was short-lived. An avalanche struck, blocking what was left of the road. Anthony decided to call for a support vehicle as we crossed the avalanche precariously. We had to walk another 4km before we could get into a Tata 207 pick-up to head back to the base. It was well past midnight when we reached Bhang.

A 44km drive and a 20km walk—it was perhaps the shortest but most adventurous journey.

By the time this is published, Rohtang Pass will be open, and these men of steel would have moved to another stretch.

ramesh.p@livemint.com

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Published: 27 Apr 2012, 05:40 PM IST
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