<p>India has just upped its strategic game to ensure Bhutan remains within its sphere of influence in the long run by announcing two railway projects that will link it to the Himalayan kingdom. With China eager to usurp any strategic space that India might cede in Bhutan, which it tries to bully in any case, this latest move by New Delhi is meant to forge close physical and economic linkages with a neighbour that lies strategically nestled between the two Asian giants.</p>.<p>For landlocked Bhutan, enhanced physical connectivity with India will be a boon. As for India, these rail links, the first ever between the two countries, will help it earn greater goodwill in Bhutan. This has become all the more imperative given China’s rapacious presence in the region and its efforts to build deeper inroads into Bhutan despite the absence of formal diplomatic relations between Beijing and Thimphu.</p>.India and Bhutan announce first cross-border railway project of Rs 4,033 crore.<p>With energy and power sector cooperation already a lynchpin of bilateral ties, the improved physical connectivity will be advantageous for both India and Bhutan. While a 20-km rail link will connect Banarhat in West Bengal to Bhutan’s industrial town of Samtse, the other 69-km link will connect Kokrajhar in Assam to Gelephu in southern Bhutan, which is being promoted <br>as a ‘Mindfulness City’ by Bhutanese king Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. The Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) project aims to develop it as a special autonomous region that can <br>catalyse the kingdom’s economic growth.</p>.<p>Bhutan envisages the development of GMC as an economic hub where an international airport is also planned to drive the country’s economic transformation. Bhutan also wants to have enhanced physical connectivity with India so that it can take advantage of its logistics network to promote trade and commerce. Both Samtse and Gelephu are located close to the Indian border and could be vital engines of growth for Bhutan’s economy. GMC is already being showcased as an attractive destination for manufacturers and investors, given its proximity to India with its huge market. India, too, is hoping to reap economic benefits for the region where these two railway lines will be built.</p>.<p>The project is estimated to cost Rs 4,033 crore and will be funded entirely by India, with some money coming from the railways ministry’s budget and the remaining from the external affairs ministry’s allocation to Bhutan in its 13th Five-Year Plan (2024-29). Under it, India is to provide Bhutan with development support of Rs 10,000 crore, double the amount allocated under the 12th FYP (2018-2023). India has been Bhutan’s largest development partner and funds its Five-Year Plans.</p>.<p>Given the strategic gains and the boost to bilateral trade India hopes to make through these rail links, it will consider this money well spent. India, however, will need to ensure these projects – slated to be completed in three to four years – do not suffer from cost or time overruns.</p>.<p>A neighbour looms</p>.<p>While India has been steadfast in its support for Bhutan against Chinese pressure tactics, driven in no small measure by its own security concerns, for Thimphu, it has been challenging to deal with Beijing’s coercive tactics. In 2017, the Indian Army had intervened to stop road building by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on the Bhutanese territory of Doklam, which lies near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet trijunction, leading to a 73-day troop stand-off. India did manage to stop the road construction towards its Jampheri ridge, which overlooks the highly vulnerable Siliguri Corridor or the so-called ‘Chicken’s Neck’, but Chinese troops are now permanently stationed in north Doklam.</p>.<p>Bhutan, ever mindful of India’s strategic interests, has been seeking to strike a fine balance between its two large neighbours. With an unsettled boundary with China and well acquainted with its hegemonistic ambitions, Bhutan cannot afford to antagonise the Chinese dragon beyond a point.</p>.<p>China and Bhutan have held 25 rounds of discussions so far to settle the territorial disputes, which include the Doklam plateau in the west and the Jakarlung and Pasamlung valleys in the north. Bhutan would like the boundary issue resolved as it simply cannot stand up to China’s salami-slicing tactics, which have seen the latter continuing to build villages and settlements on what is the former’s territory.</p>.<p>In the high-stakes battle for influence in Bhutan, India cannot afford to slacken its approach lest China make deeper inroads into the Himalayan nation, for this will only endanger India’s own security interests. The announcement of the rail projects is a good move, but proper and timely execution is a strategic imperative.</p>.<p>(The writer is a senior journalist)</p>
<p>India has just upped its strategic game to ensure Bhutan remains within its sphere of influence in the long run by announcing two railway projects that will link it to the Himalayan kingdom. With China eager to usurp any strategic space that India might cede in Bhutan, which it tries to bully in any case, this latest move by New Delhi is meant to forge close physical and economic linkages with a neighbour that lies strategically nestled between the two Asian giants.</p>.<p>For landlocked Bhutan, enhanced physical connectivity with India will be a boon. As for India, these rail links, the first ever between the two countries, will help it earn greater goodwill in Bhutan. This has become all the more imperative given China’s rapacious presence in the region and its efforts to build deeper inroads into Bhutan despite the absence of formal diplomatic relations between Beijing and Thimphu.</p>.India and Bhutan announce first cross-border railway project of Rs 4,033 crore.<p>With energy and power sector cooperation already a lynchpin of bilateral ties, the improved physical connectivity will be advantageous for both India and Bhutan. While a 20-km rail link will connect Banarhat in West Bengal to Bhutan’s industrial town of Samtse, the other 69-km link will connect Kokrajhar in Assam to Gelephu in southern Bhutan, which is being promoted <br>as a ‘Mindfulness City’ by Bhutanese king Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. The Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) project aims to develop it as a special autonomous region that can <br>catalyse the kingdom’s economic growth.</p>.<p>Bhutan envisages the development of GMC as an economic hub where an international airport is also planned to drive the country’s economic transformation. Bhutan also wants to have enhanced physical connectivity with India so that it can take advantage of its logistics network to promote trade and commerce. Both Samtse and Gelephu are located close to the Indian border and could be vital engines of growth for Bhutan’s economy. GMC is already being showcased as an attractive destination for manufacturers and investors, given its proximity to India with its huge market. India, too, is hoping to reap economic benefits for the region where these two railway lines will be built.</p>.<p>The project is estimated to cost Rs 4,033 crore and will be funded entirely by India, with some money coming from the railways ministry’s budget and the remaining from the external affairs ministry’s allocation to Bhutan in its 13th Five-Year Plan (2024-29). Under it, India is to provide Bhutan with development support of Rs 10,000 crore, double the amount allocated under the 12th FYP (2018-2023). India has been Bhutan’s largest development partner and funds its Five-Year Plans.</p>.<p>Given the strategic gains and the boost to bilateral trade India hopes to make through these rail links, it will consider this money well spent. India, however, will need to ensure these projects – slated to be completed in three to four years – do not suffer from cost or time overruns.</p>.<p>A neighbour looms</p>.<p>While India has been steadfast in its support for Bhutan against Chinese pressure tactics, driven in no small measure by its own security concerns, for Thimphu, it has been challenging to deal with Beijing’s coercive tactics. In 2017, the Indian Army had intervened to stop road building by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on the Bhutanese territory of Doklam, which lies near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet trijunction, leading to a 73-day troop stand-off. India did manage to stop the road construction towards its Jampheri ridge, which overlooks the highly vulnerable Siliguri Corridor or the so-called ‘Chicken’s Neck’, but Chinese troops are now permanently stationed in north Doklam.</p>.<p>Bhutan, ever mindful of India’s strategic interests, has been seeking to strike a fine balance between its two large neighbours. With an unsettled boundary with China and well acquainted with its hegemonistic ambitions, Bhutan cannot afford to antagonise the Chinese dragon beyond a point.</p>.<p>China and Bhutan have held 25 rounds of discussions so far to settle the territorial disputes, which include the Doklam plateau in the west and the Jakarlung and Pasamlung valleys in the north. Bhutan would like the boundary issue resolved as it simply cannot stand up to China’s salami-slicing tactics, which have seen the latter continuing to build villages and settlements on what is the former’s territory.</p>.<p>In the high-stakes battle for influence in Bhutan, India cannot afford to slacken its approach lest China make deeper inroads into the Himalayan nation, for this will only endanger India’s own security interests. The announcement of the rail projects is a good move, but proper and timely execution is a strategic imperative.</p>.<p>(The writer is a senior journalist)</p>
