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India has intensified its focus on strategic infrastructure in sensitive border areas near China amid ongoing military tensions between the two countries.
In contentious regions along the 2,100-mile Line of Actual Control, the Indian government has earmarked some 90 connectivity projects, Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, a political analyst at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, wrote in The Diplomat magazine last month.
In Arunachal Pradesh, on the northeastern border with China's Tibet region, where the two forces last clashed just over one year ago, 36 projects are planned. Ladakh in the west, bordering Xinjiang, will benefit from 26, according to Rajagopalan.
On the other side of the border, China is also hurriedly constructing new roads in Xinjiang, a so-called dual-use infrastructure that will similarly facilitate the movement of People's Liberation Army troops in the event of a conflict.
Two Chinese highways, the G216 and the G695, are slowly nearing completion as the two Asian giants remain poised at higher readiness levels since their deadly standoff in 2020.
In June of that year, Chinese and Indian patrols fought in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, resulting in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four PLA troops. Reports in New Delhi have long suspected Beijing of deliberately undercounting its official death toll from the incident.
For three and a half years, India has been supported by U.S. intelligence-gathering operations as it watches the PLA's movements in the tense border areas. The United States has also transferred technology to boost India's defenses against China's territorial expansion in the immediate neighborhood.
In its year-end review, the Indian Defense Ministry said over 370 miles of highway were completed in 2023, with significant progress on the India-China border and other operationally critical areas in the country's north. Several other major undertakings were approaching completion.
In Ladakh, for example, Indian authorities are building an alternative connection road to Daulat Beg Oldi, India's northernmost military base. In Uttarakhand, near the China-Nepal border in the center of the LAC, strategic road projects are in various stages of development.
The 80-mile road to Daulat Beg Oldi will be critical for the movement of troops and logistics while being out of sight from LAC, the Hindustan Times newspaper said in September, providing a strategic advantage over an existing route some 150 miles from disputed areas.
The push for strategic infrastructure is a direct response to the military standoff that began in May 2020, just before the Galwan Valley melee, with a full resolution still elusive despite ongoing negotiations.
Lt. Gen. Rajeev Chaudhry, the director general of India's Border Roads Organization, told the ANI news agency last year that the urgency of the projects—focused squarely on Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh—was aimed at securing a strategic edge over China.
India's army chief, Gen. Manoj Pande, said this week that New Delhi continues to push China to restore the status quo ante.
"Currently, our attempt is to continue the talks with the Chinese army to go back to the pre-April 2020 status quo. Our first aim is to achieve that," Pande said during a press conference on Thursday.
About the writer
Aadil Brar is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian ... Read more