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A pass at 5,799 metres in eastern Ladakh whose BRO-built road held the record for the world's highest motorable road from 2021 until 2025.
Umling La is a high mountain pass on the Changthang plateau in eastern Ladakh, standing at about 5,799 metres or 19,024 feet, near the village of Demchok close to the Line of Actual Control with China. It became internationally known in 2021 when the Border Roads Organisation completed a motorable road across it under Project Himank, earning a Guinness World Record for the world's highest motorable road. The road connects the villages of Chisumle and Demchok and forms part of the network improving access to the Chumar sector of eastern Ladakh. The record passed to Mig La in October 2025, but Umling La remains one of the highest road passes anywhere and a reference point for high-altitude engineering.
Type: PhenomenonAltitude — about 5,799 metres, or 19,024 feet
Location — the Changthang plateau in eastern Ladakh, near Demchok, close to the Line of Actual Control
Builder — the Border Roads Organisation, under Project Himank
Road — the Chisumle-Demchok road, roughly 52 kilometres in length
Record — held the Guinness World Record for the world's highest motorable road from 2021 until 2025
Position — lies on the ridge separating the Koyul Lungpa valley from the Indus basin
Conditions — winter temperatures fall to around minus 40 degrees Celsius and oxygen availability is roughly half that at sea level
Frequency: A recurring current-affairs and geography item since 2021, with renewed relevance after the 2025 record change
About 5,799 metres (19,024 feet)
Changthang plateau, eastern Ladakh
Demchok
Border Roads Organisation, Project Himank
Chisumle-Demchok road, about 52 km
2021
World's highest motorable road, 2021 to 2025
Mig La, about 19,400 feet, in October 2025
Around minus 40 degrees Celsius
Roughly 50% of sea level
Umling La is usually reported as a record, but its importance is strategic. Eastern Ladakh's forward areas were historically reachable only along a small number of routes, and moving troops or supplies to the Chumar sector meant long detours. A road across Umling La creates an additional axis close to the Line of Actual Control, shortening response times and reducing dependence on any single approach. The engineering itself is the second point of interest: at nearly 5,800 metres, machinery loses power because the air is too thin for efficient combustion, bitumen will not set reliably, and workers can operate only in short shifts, which is why such projects proceed over several brief summer seasons. The subsequent construction of Mig La at an even greater height, on the Likaru-Mig La-Fukche alignment, shows the same logic continuing — each new road adds an axis rather than merely a record.
Umling La: about 5,799 m or 19,024 ft, Changthang plateau, eastern Ladakh, near Demchok
Road built by the Border Roads Organisation under Project Himank, completed 2021
Connects Chisumle and Demchok over roughly 52 km
Held the world's highest motorable road record from 2021 to 2025
Overtaken by Mig La at about 19,400 ft in October 2025, on the Likaru-Mig La-Fukche alignment
Eleven of the world's fourteen highest motorable passes were built by the BRO
Winter temperatures near minus 40 degrees Celsius; oxygen about half that at sea level
About 5,799 metres, or 19,024 feet, on the Changthang plateau in eastern Ladakh.
No. It held the record from 2021 until October 2025, when Mig La, at about 19,400 feet, overtook it. Both roads were built by the Border Roads Organisation under Project Himank.
Chisumle and Demchok, over a stretch of roughly 52 kilometres in eastern Ladakh.
The Border Roads Organisation, under Project Himank. Eleven of the world's fourteen highest motorable passes have been built by the BRO.
It lies close to the Line of Actual Control near Demchok and creates an additional access axis to the Chumar sector, reducing dependence on a small number of existing routes.