Home Minister Rajnath Singh will spend the New Year with Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) troops in Uttarakhand’s Nelong valley along the China border. This would be the Home Minister’s second visit to the Sino-Indian border area in Uttarakhand after his 4-day tour of the region in September.
Singh would celebrate the New Year on Monday with ITBP personnel at Nelong Border Outpost (BoP) situated at the height of 11,700 feet. The border outpost is in Nelong valley which is surrounded by high mountains and where temperature dips upto minus 15 degrees Celsius.
The Home Minister reached ITBP’s 12th battalion headquarters on Sunday afternoon in picturesque Matli, located at 3400 feet on the banks of hagirathi river, where he will attend a cultural programme by jawans and their family members.
He will also visit PDA or Pulam Sumdha (altitude 14,200 feet), Kopang (8,700 feet) and Bhairon Ghati (9,150 feet), and will interact with jawans of the ITBP. The Home Minister would be accompanied by ITBP Director General (DG) R K Pachnanda during his visit.
The about 90,000-personnel strong ITBP is tasked with guarding the 3,488 km long Sino-India border that stretches through Jammu and Kashmir (1,597 km), Himachal Pradesh (200 km), Uttarakhand (345 km), Sikkim (220 km) and Arunachal Pradesh (1,126 km).