Rajnath to inaugurate projects worth ₹2,236 cr in infra push along China border

In India’s latest infrastructure push along the China border and other remote areas, defence minister Rajnath Singh will on October 12 dedicate 75 projects worth ₹2,236 crore to the country, including roads and bridges that will significantly boost military mobility and logistics support for deployed forces in forward areas in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, officials aware of the matter said on Wednesday.

The development comes amid China’s unrelenting infrastructure push along the India border during the last five years.

Singh, who is visiting Sikkim on October 11-12, will open the strategic Kupup-Sherathang road and virtually inaugurate the remaining 74 projects, including a few in West Bengal, Nagaland, Mizoram, Rajasthan and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

This will take the count of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) infrastructure projects dedicated to the country this year to 111 at a total cost of ₹3,751 crore, the officials said, asking not to be named.

The minister will spend Dussehra (October 12) with frontline soldiers guarding the mountain frontier with the neighbour, where Indian and Chinese soldiers have been involved in faceoffs, as well as address the Army Commanders’ conference in Gangtok on October 11, the first time the top meeting is being held near the China border.

This is enormously symbolic as the military standoff between India and China in eastern Ladakh has entered its fifth year, with no indication of a resolution to the outstanding problems along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC). To be sure, India is hoping that ongoing negotiations with China will help restore the status quo ante of April 2020.

Singh will inaugurate 22 roads, 51 bridges and two other projects constructed by BRO under challenging conditions, including weather and terrain, said one of the officials cited above.

Asked for a breakdown of the figures, he said 19 of the projects were in J&K, 11 in Ladakh (the centre of the current border tensions with China), 18 in Arunachal Pradesh, nine in Uttarakhand, six in Sikkim, five in Himachal Pradesh, two each in West Bengal and Rajasthan, and one each in Nagaland, Mizoram and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

“BRO completed these strategic projects in record time, and several were executed in a single working season using state-of-the-art technology,” said a second official.

The Sela tunnel, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March, is among the 111 projects completed this year. The Sela tunnel, built by BRO at a cost of ₹825 crore, has put military mobility and logistics support for forward deployed forces in the strategic Tawang sector, where Indian soldiers hold posts close to the contested border with China, in the fast lane. It is the world’s longest twin-lane tunnel at a height of more than 13,000 feet.

Last year, 125 BRO projects worth ₹3,611 crore were dedicated to the nation, boosting India’s defence preparedness against its adversaries on the northern and western fronts.

BRO, which is at the centre of the India’s border infrastructure push, has completed 450 infrastructure projects worth ₹16,000 crore in the last five years, according to official data from the defence ministry. These projects include new roads, bridges, tunnels, airfields and helipads.

The military’s readiness, among other things, depends on infrastructure in forward areas — a landscape dotted with towering mountains, valleys and rivers — and India is firing on all cylinders to ensure that its deployed forces hold an advantageous position.

As things stand, China has an edge over India border infrastructure, but the country is on the fastest way to bridge the gaps, and the progress is being tracked at the highest levels of the government.

Increased connectivity in forward areas not only has a direct bearing on military mobility and logistics support, but also the movement of civilians in border states.

India lags China in border infrastructure but the country is catching up fast on the back of speedy execution of strategic projects to support military operations, increased spending, and focussed adoption of technology and techniques to fill gaps that came into focus after the standoff with China began in April-May 2020.

India is keeping a close track of border infrastructure development by China. The neighbour’s infrastructure push has been confirmed by satellite images, and encompasses the construction of new airbases, missile sites, roads, bridges, reinforced bunkers, underground facilities to protect military assets from aerial strikes, accommodation for soldiers and ammunition depots.

Conducting the first leg of the Army Commanders’ conference at a forward location in Sikkim underlines the Indian Army’s focus on ground realities, the army said in a statement on Wednesday, a veiled reference to the ongoing tensions with China in the Ladakh theatre.

“The two-day conference (October 10-11) will serve as a forum for senior commanders to review the current operational preparedness, deliberate on critical strategies and outline future directives. Discussions will focus on critical national security issues and strategic aspects aimed at sharpening the army’s war fighting capabilities,” the army said.

The second phase of the top meeting will be held in Delhi on October 28-29 and will involve in-depth discussions on critical areas including the impact of global developments on geopolitics, and operational matters.

On October 1, army chief General Upendra Dwivedi described the situation along LAC in eastern Ladakh as “stable but sensitive,” and pointed out that trust between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was “the biggest casualty” of the dragging military standoff.

The two armies have thus far held 21 rounds of corps commander-level talks to cool tensions along LAC.

The talks have thus far resulted in four rounds of disengagement from Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Gogra (PP-17A) and Hot Springs (PP-15), but problems at Depsang and Demchok are still unresolved. Both armies still have tens of thousands of troops each and advanced weaponry deployed in the Ladakh theatre.