Doklam, Pengong incidents give push to border road infra development

16/10/2017

NEW DELHI, Oct 15: Along with focusing on acquiring cutting edge technology for its defence equipment and arma-ments, India is going for a major push for devel-opment of infrastructure along the border with China.
The recent incidents at Doklam, Pengong and Uttarakhand’s Barahoti have acted as a catalyst for increasing connectivity of forward posts with the base.
The idea for setting up border roads was to ensure speedy movement of the armed forces at the time of needs. India and China are sharing 2388-km long border in three parts, eastern sector, central sector and western sector.
Among these three, central sector is less developed and have small undisputed section with Chinese. In an effort to meet any eventualities in the future, the Defence Ministry has decided to construct roads in this sector.
And, the issue of setting up of borders road connectivity was also raised in the Army Commanders Conference which is underway here in Delhi.
Listing out the Army’s priority lists, Army’s Director General of Staff Duties (DGSD) Lt Gen Vijay Singh has said, “It has been decided that there would be a concerted efforts towards road construction activities in this sector.
To that end four passes to Niti, Lipulekh, Thangla-1 and Tsangchokla have been decided to be connected by 2020 on priority.”
The debate gained momentum after both the troops went in standoff mode on June 16 that ended after 73 days on August 28, 2017.
Indian Army stopped the Chinese troops with construction vehicles and road-building equipment, began extending an existing road southward in Doklam, a territory which is claimed by both China as well as India’s ally Bhutan.
China accused India of illegal intrusion into its territory across mutually agreed China-India boundary and violation of its territorial sovereignty and UN Charter while India accused China of changing status quo in violation of a 2012 understanding between the two governments regarding the tri-juction boundary points and causing security concerns, widely understood as at its strategic Siliguri Corridor. Keeping everything in mind, India is also making sure the “capability development” of its forces for dealing with any conflict in future.
“A road map for intra-sector connectivity within the central sector and the inter-sector connectivity with neighbouring areas was also discussed during the conference,” Lt Gen Singh added.
The central sector extends from from Dem-chok in Ladakh and ends at India’s border with Nepal while the western sector is from the northwest of Karakoram pass to Demchok and the eastern sector begins from Sikkim and ends at the border with Myanmar.
However, for the first time in its over 50 years history, the ITBP is raising and deploying a mechanised column of power vehicles and machines to speedily mobilise troops along the Sino-India border in case of Chinese military transgressions and Doklam-like standoffs.
The decision to raise such a military-style combat wing in the paramilitary was taken after the Union home ministry recently approved deployment of snow scooters at all the high-altitude border outposts of the mountain-warfare trained force along the 3,488-km long frontier it guards.
A senior home ministry official said on the condition of anonymity that the mechanised column of the force will comprise over 250 Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), snow scooters, excavators and few other medium-lift four-wheeled vehicles.
While the army has the mechanised infantry, it was essential to have a mechanised column in the border guarding force as it secures this border in peace times and will bear the first onslaught in case of a war or a conflict, the official said explaining the rationale for the latest move.
Till now, only the Border Security Force under the home ministry, that guards the Indo-Pak border, had an artillery unit and some mechanised components to aid it.
A proposal to raise a full-fledged mechanised column under the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force was moved by the forces’ headquarters here sometime back, the official said, with the force Director General (DG) R K Pachnanda making a specific presentation to the ministry in this context.
The about 90,000-personnel force has sanctions to procure about 150 SUVs for high-altitude deployment, out of which it has about five dozen already deployed, half-a-dozen snow scooters and few excavators to clear snow-bound passes and landslide-prone border tracks.
A senior ITBP official said many more such vehicles and machines, including anti-skid ATVs, will be procured by the force in the next few months.
The force has about 30 border posts above the height of 15,000 feet and some 50 such posts above 12,000 feet and the home ministry has accorded sanctions to the ITBP to have at least one snow scooter at each of these frontier bases.
The force has also been given sanctions to upgrade its firepower by modernising the support weapons like 81mm mortars, he added.
“Sanctions have already been accorded to procure modern machines and vehicles for the force.
So, apart from expeditiously completing the construction of China border roads in the wake of Doklam-like incidents and transgressions, the government has decided to strengthen the assets and strength of the both the army and the ITBP, the first line of defence on the Line of Actual Control (LAC),” the home ministry official said.
The defence ministry had recently decided to significantly enhance infrastructure along this border including around the areas of dispute with the Chinese forces.
The decision was taken at the Army’s commanders conference which extensively deliberated on the Dokalam face off with China besides analysing all possible security challenges on the northern border.
The ITBP, as part of bolstering its capabilities to effectively secure this border, had last year procured over six dozen SUVs and sent them to far-flung border areas for patrol and transportation of troops and had similarly procured five snow scooters early this year.
The force was raised in 1962 in the aftermath of the Chinese aggression.

Share This Story


Comment On This Story

 

Photo Gallery

  
BSE Sensex
NSE Nifty