Big push for pending China border projects

India on Tuesday decided to give a big push to complete the pending infrastructure projects along the 3,488 km long disputed boundary with China by forming a high-powered Committee of Secretaries that would fast-track all such projects.

The decision was taken at a top-level meeting chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and attended by Union Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Power Minister R K Singh, Communication Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

“The meeting reviewed the progress in the construction of various infrastructure projects on the northern border areas. To fast-track the pending projects, it has been decided to set up a Committee of Secretaries which will meet at frequent intervals,” said a defence ministry official.

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The Border Roads Organisation in recent years accelerated the construction of roads, tunnels and bridges close to the Line of Actual Control, but they suffered a setback due to the Covid-pandemic.

In the last five years, the BRO constructed close to 4000 km of roads close to Indian borders, of which the majority happened in the northern (760 km in Ladakh, 723 km in Jammu and Kashmir and 480 km in Uttarakhand) and eastern sectors (664 km in Arunachal Pradesh).

The Defence Ministry, however, tasked the BRO to prepare 257 border roads spanning over 13,500 km in 13 states in the next five years. The majority is in the states across the LAC – Arunachal Pradesh (64 roads), Ladakh (43), Jammu and Kashmir (61) and Uttarakhand (22).

In addition, there are 75 border infrastructure projects launched in October 2022 and the border area development programme in 117 border districts that face problems due to erratic power and telecom signals and patchy road networks.

The critical review was also attended by the Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Lieutenant Governors of Ladakh, as well as Jammu and Kashmir, Chief of the Defence of Staff Gen Anil Chauhan, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Chief of the Army Staff General Manoj Pande, Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and other senior officials.

The over two hours of deliberations took place days after US intelligence agencies listed the chance of armed confrontation between India and China on top of the list of potential inter-state conflicts in the latest annual threat assessment report. An armed conflict with Pakistan comes second on the list.