Massive boost to infra along India-China border; Connectivity on 59 strategically important roads achieved

On Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in Rajya Sabha that connectivity on 59 roads has been achieved along the India-China border. The minister, in a written response to a question, said as many as 61 India-China Border Roads (ICBRs) with a length of 3,323.57 kilometres were identified as strategically important. The work was entrusted to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), he said. The construction of 42 roads with a length of 1,530.38 kilometres has been completed, the Defence Minister said. On 59 roads of 3,205.16 kilometres in length, connectivity has already been achieved. While on the remaining two roads of 118.41 kilometres length, the unconnected portion is 29 kilometres, he said.

According to a PTI report, in view of the face-off between the militaries of India and China in eastern Ladakh as well as aggressive infrastructure development by China along the border, efforts have been redoubled by India in order to improve connectivity along the frontier.

By this month, 10 ICBR roads are targeted to be completed. While development work on seven roads is likely to be over by the month of March next year and work on another two roads is expected to be over by March 2023, Singh said. In order to expedite the implementation of the road projects, the financial and administrative powers of BRO executives have been enhanced, the minister said.

The Union Minister further stated that out of 61 roads, 27 roads with a length of 1,725.46 kilometres are in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, 12 roads with a length of 1,064.14 kilometres are in Ladakh and 14 roads with a length of 355 kilometres are in the state of Uttarakhand. Also, there are five ICBR roads in Himachal Pradesh of length 116.99 kilometres, while the state of Sikkim has three roads with a length of 61.98 kilometres, Singh said.