Taking a leaf from Elon Musk

The Border Roads Organisation makes constructing roads at high altitudes seem almost effortless. The tunnels it builds may well find an admirer in Tesla's Elon Musk. Shahkar Abidi reports.

- Shahkar Abidi

Elon Musk has a way of always being in the news. Whether it is the USD 43 billion buyouts of Twitter, or his stymied India plans to launch Tesla in India and even as he did recently, post on twitter a picture of him meeting the Pope.

So this correspondent was gobsmacked when Musk’s loop project was mentioned in the context of the armed forces developing infrastructure projects. During a recent event, Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhry, VSM, Director General, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) said, " What is Musk doing in Las Vegas where he is making 50 km long tunnels?.” He added, “ It aims to connect the Las Vegas Convention center to the resort world 2.7 km away. On the surface, it takes 30 min but through the tunnel only three minutes.”

Chaudhry was referring to a company that not many may know, the Boring Company, that Musk set up in 2017 to implement the tunnelling venture in a city known for its casinos, luxury resorts and theme parks.

A world away from the glitzy world of Las Vegas, the BRO, under Chaudhry’s able stewardship is building a tunnel that covers 4.25 km at an altitude of 15,855 feet at ShinkuLa which will connect Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh, and which when completed, will be the world's highest tunnel once completed.