New Delhi: Even as it maintains that the Chinese incursion is a non-issue, the Government is working furiously to enhance road infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh along the India-China border to provide logistic support to the Indian Army in time of need. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has been asked to complete all works by 2013-end. The Government had earlier admitted that China’s infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control was superior to that of India.
At least eight roads are termed strategic in Arunachal of which four have to be yet completed. As many as 75 roads with a total length of more than 6,000 km are now under construction at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore.
Besides this, 7,000 km of roads costing Rs 12,000 crore are under various stages of construction in North-East, with special focus being given to Arunachal Pradesh, which is claimed by China as its territory. The Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North-East (SARDP-NE) project was divided into two phases: The first phase involving 1,300 km of roads primarily in the North-East State to be completed by this year-end. The second phase involved 5,700 km with the 2013 deadline.
The BRO was given the responsibility of constructing the majority of roads. While it had completed four of the eight strategic roads in Arunachal, the remaining four would be ready within the next couple of months, sources said here on Monday.
Given that China has built roads right up to the LAC in Arunachal and Ladakh, thereby ensuring smooth chain of supply and having an edge over the Indians, the Inter-Ministerial China Study Group proposed construction of at least 75 roads all along the border.
The roads in various stages of construction are in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Jammu & Kashmir, besides Arunachal Pradesh. While 36 roads were earmarked for Arunachal, 20 roads were sanctioned for Uttarakhand, six each for Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim and five roads in Jammu & Kashmir, sources told The Pioneer.
The Indian armed forces are presently seriously handicapped in the absence of all-weather roads in the States like Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, and have to depend on logistical support from air, which is an expensive option.
Moreover, China has linked Lhasa in Tibet with its mainland by rail there by posing another logistical challenge to India to keep pace with this development. A train can ferry a large number of troops and war waging material and India has a distinct disadvantage as nearest road heads are nearly ten days march on foot from where the troops are deployed on the eastern front.
In these circumstances, logistical support is provided through ponies and besides helicopters and transport planes. However, road connectivity is the need of the hour to counter the threat posed by China for rapid deployment and nearly all areas, including Ladakh in the west and Arunachal in the east, are woefully short of roads.
Even as the road construction is on full-swing in the border region, the IAF has begun upgrading its advanced landing grounds in Ladakh and Arunachal region. While it has built four air bases in Ladakh in the last one year, plans are afoot to upgrade such bases in Arunachal in a time-bound manner.
The Government had cleared a plan to upgrade nearly 40 airfields all over the country with most of them in North-East in an effort to maintain connectivity and maintain strategic balance with China. Sources said all the airfields in the North-East would be completed within the next five to seven years.
