All-woman crew in Ladakh runs LPG plant that Army depends on

LEH: Every morning, Tsering Angmo leaves her two-year-old son with neighbours and commutes 20 km through a frozen landscape from her home in Choglamsar, a settlement near Leh, to work at Ladakh’s only LPG bottling plant near Leh.

Angmo is part of a 12-member all-women crew making sure that the 50,000 Indian soldiers eyeballing the People’s Liberation Army in Arctic temperatures do not have to march on empty stomachs.

The plant, built by state-run IndianOil, is Ladakh’s only source of cooking gas and a lifeline once snow snaps road connectivity with the rest of the country. About 40% of the refills produced at the plant go to the defence establishment. It is also the country’s only LPG unit to be operated by women.