The Darbuk–Shyok–DBO Road (DS-DBO Road/DSDBO Road), also called the Sub-Sector North Road, is a strategic all-weather road in eastern

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

in India, close to the

Line of Actual Control The Line of Actual Control (LAC), in the context of the Sino-Indian border dispute, is a notional demarcation lineAnanth KrishnanLine of Actual Control , India-China: the line of actual contest, 13 June 2020: "In contrast, the alignment of ...

with China. It connects Ladakh's capital city

Leh Leh () is a city in Indian-administered Ladakh in the Kashmir#Kashmir_dispute, disputed Kashmir region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the WP:TE ...

, via the villages of Darbuk and Shyok at southern Shyok River Valley, with the

Daulat Beg Oldi Daulat Beg Oldi (also Oldie, DBO) is a traditional campsite and current military base located in the midst of the Karakoram Range in northern Ladakh, India. It is on the historic trade route between Ladakh and the Tarim Basin, and is the last c ...

(DBO) post near the northern border. The 220-km long section between Shyok and DBO was constructed between 2000 and 2019 by India's

Border Roads Organisation The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is a statutory body under the ownership of the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India. BRO develops and maintains road networks in India's border areas and friendly neighboring countries. This include ...

(BRO). The DS-DBO Road has reduced the travel time between Leh to DBO from 2 days to 6 hours.Ajay Banerjee
India completes vital Ladakh road
, The Tribune (Chandigarh) 22 April 2019.Lt Gen Prakash Katoch
DSDBO Road completed – but what of the scam and the northeast?
, Indian Defence Review, 27 April 2019. In January 2023, BRO announced that it is constructing the DSDBO tunnel on this route.

History

The Darbuk–Shyok–DBO Road traverses the historic winter route, also called the ''Zamistānee'' route, used by the trading caravans between Leh and Yarkand. Whereas the summer route would cross the Ladakh Range through the difficult Sasser Pass to reach the Shyok River valley, the winter route used to go via the banks of the Shyok River when the water flow would be much reduced and the frozen river surface could be crossed on foot as needed. Proceeding on the right (western) bank of the Shyok River up to Sultan Chhushku, the route crossed the river to the eastern bank, and followed the valley of Murgo Nala to reach the village of

Murgo Murgo, on "Murgo Nala" near Murgo Hotspring, is a small hilly village which lies near the Line of Actual Control in Nubra district of the union territory of Ladakh in India, close to Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin. It is one of the northernmost ...

. Here, the summer route also joined the winter route after crossing the Shyok River near Saser Brangsa. From here, the joint route followed Burtsa Nala and Depsang Nala to reach the

Depsang Plains The Depsang Plains, a high-altitude gravelly plain in the northwest portion of the disputed Aksai Chin region of Kashmir, divided into Indian and Chinese administered portions by a Line of Actual Control. India controls the western portio ...

and went on to the

Karakoram Pass The Karakoram Pass () is a mountain pass between India and China in the Karakoram Range. It is the highest pass on the ancient caravan route between Leh in Ladakh and Yarkant County, Yarkand in the Tarim Basin. The name 'Karakoram' comes from ...

via

Route

The BRO road begins near the village of Shyok, which is the on the west bank of the

Shyok River The Shyok River (sometimes spelled Shayok) is a major tributary of the Indus River that flows through northern Ladakh in India and into Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan. Originating from the Central Rimo Glacier in the eastern Karakoram, it runs f ...

after its V-shaped bend. Shyok already has roads leading west, to

via Darbuk, and south, leading to

Pangong Tso Pangong Tso or Pangong Lake (; zh, s=班公错, p=Bān gōng cuò; ) is an endorheic lake spanning eastern Ladakh and Ngari Prefecture, West Tibet situated at an elevation of . It is long and divided into five sublakes, called ''Pangong Tso' ...

. The BRO road crosses the Shyok river to its right bank and rounds the corner, continuing along its right bank due north (on the west side of the river bed). After passing the historic campsites of Chhumed, Mundro and Mandaltang, it crosses the river near Sultan Chhushku. A 430-metre-long bridge over the full width of the river bed has been constructed and named the 'Colonel Chewang Rinchen Setu'. After the Setu, the road goes through the valley of Murgo Nala to reach the village of

, then the valley of Burtsa Nala to reach the camping site of Burtsa, and then Depsang nala to pass by Qizil Langar, close to the

with China. After Qizil Langar, the road enters the

on a more or less straight route to the Dault Beg Oldi.

Sino-Indian border dispute

Chinese claim lines in Ladakh - map by CIA

Near Burtsa, where the Depsang nala joins the Burtsa Nala, the Line of Actual Control has been disputed by China and India. China's 1956 claim line as well as the 1960 claim line leave the entire Burtsa Nala (''Tiannan'' river in Chinese nomenclature) in Indian territory. However, the People's Liberation Army's papers are said to document a so-called "line of actual control on 7 November 1959" which runs within an earshot of the DS–DBO Road. Since

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, they began to assert this line as the operative LAC.Yun Sun
China’s Strategic Assessment of the Ladakh Clash
, ''War on the Rocks'', 19 June 2020. The Chinese claim that they reached their line in

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

and withdrew 20 kilometres as part of ceasefire, but the area was "unjustly occupied by India" in later years. During the border standoff in 2020, the Chinese forces again stationed themselves near a location called "Y-junction" or "bottleneck" in the Burtsa Nala valley, and blocked the Indian troops from patrolling to the east of it. China was claiming 250 square kilometres of new territory that India was previously accessing, while also posing threat to the DS-DBO Road.

Construction: 2000-2019

The construction was initiated in 2000, with a revised deadline of 2014. However, in 2011, an inquiry by the Chief Technical Examiner found that three-quarters of the road had been laid on the river bed, which is unsuitable for military use. A new Border Roads Task Force from Jammu was then commissioned to realign the constructed road on higher ground and to complete it. The revamped project was scheduled for completion in 2017 but was eventually completed in April 2019. The old alignment was used in the intervening period during the winter months.

Upgrades - DSDBO Tunnel: 2023 - present

''DS-DBO Tunnel'' (DSDBO Tunnel), is being constructed by the BRO on DS-DBO route. It was announced in January 2023, when it was in the DPR (detailed project report) stage.भारत और चीन के बीच तवांग में हुए संघर्ष के बाद बॉर्डर रोड ऑर्गेनाइजेशन का प्लान 2023.
, Navbharat Times, 4 Jan 2023.

Tourism

, along this road, has the Murgo Hotspring,Harish Kohl, 2000
Across the Frozen Himalaya: The Epic Winter Ski Traverse from Karakoram to Lipu Lekh
, page 75. Murgo_Gompa, Murgo Gompa of

Drukpa Kagyu The Drukpa or Drukpa Kagyu () lineage, sometimes called Dugpa in older sources, is a branch of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Kagyu school is one of the Sarma or "New Translation" schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Drukpa lineage wa ...

lineage,Prem Singh Jina, 2009
Cultural Heritage of Ladakh Himalaya
p 114. remnants of 400 years old breastwork fortification wall (fortification of earthwork piled up to breast height to provide protection to defenders shooting over it from a standing position) built by the governor of

Nubra Nubra, also called Dumra, is a historical region of Ladakh, India that is currently administered as a subdivision and a tehsil in the Leh district. Its inhabited areas form a tri-armed valley cut by the Nubra and Shyok rivers. Its Tibetan nam ...

against the invasions from Tibetan

Yarkent Khanate The Yarkent Khanate, also known as the Yarkand Khanate and the Kashghar Khanate, was a Sunni Muslim Turkic peoples, Turkic state ruled by the Mongols, Mongol descendants of Chagatai Khan. It was founded by Sultan Said Khan in 1514 as a western of ...

, ancient skeletal remains of mules and camels as well as the partially decomposed ancient human bodies. The camels were brought here by the Yarkandi invaders.Harish Kapadia, 1999
Across Peaks & Passes in Ladakh, Zanskar & East Karakoram
, p 116. Burtse area along this road is a site of 40 million years old marine

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s when this area was in the

Tethys Sea The Tethys Ocean ( ; ), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early-mid Cenozoic Era. It was the predecessor to the modern Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Eurasia ...

. The fossils found here include the

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

s (snail-like mollusks),

bivalve Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...

s (shellfish) and

foraminifera Foraminifera ( ; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are unicellular organism, single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class (biology), class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell bio ...

(mostly microscopic organisms).Geologist finds marine fossils at icy heights in Ladakh
, Hindustan Times, 30 aug 2023.

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

* Prateek Joshi
India’s Growing Military Footprint in Eastern Ladakh: Facing China
, CogitAsia, Center for Strategic & International Studies, 26 July 2016. * Alice G Wells
Why Ladakh road built last year has been a thorn in China's flesh
Economic Timems Prime, 20 May 2020. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Darbuk-Shyok-DBO Road Roads in Ladakh Transport in Leh Border Roads Organisation roads