India urgently builds border bridge to catch up with China - China news
- 4 years ago
India urgently builds border bridge to catch up with China.
Ligen Eliyas spun the hydraulic shovel, pushed the giant rock into the Zanskar River, clearing the place for the urgent completion of the Indian strategic road near the Chinese border.
The site is near Chilling village in Ladakh region, about 250 kilometers west of the site of the most serious confrontation between India and China nearly 50 years ago.
When completed, it will be the only way to access much of Ladakh, including the border area. This will put India on par with China, where there is a network of roads and helipads right on the border.
"It will make it easier for the army to move after it is done," Eliyas said, his clothes and face covered with dust.
The protracted conflict in the remote western Himalayas erupted in a bloody clash in June, when 20 Indian soldiers were killed and the Chinese side of unknown casualties. These two Asian giants had a brief bloody border war in 1962.
The 283-kilometer-long Nimmu-Padam-Darcha Expressway (NPD), where Eliyas is working, is expected to be completed in three years. It highlights India's efforts, its latest post-tense duplication efforts, to develop vital infrastructure including roads, tunnels, bridges and airports, along the 3,500 km border. with China.
The road connects to a 8.8 kilometer tunnel that Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi will inaugurate in a few weeks, through the Ladakh snow desert bordering Tibet.
The two main highways linking Ladakh with the rest of India are closed for at least four months in winter. The only way to supply the necessities for Ladakh during these months is by air transport.
With thousands of soldiers stationed at the border and showing no sign of withdrawal, India is pushing harder to clear mountains as a trans-Himalayan road.
"We will not step back in the face of any difficulty for the sake of the country," Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament this month, saying the government has doubled its budget for construction. infrastructure on the border with China.
Indian officials say the construction rush this summer has been accused by China of destabilizing the mountainous areas. But China built its infrastructure here years ago, and India needs to catch up.
Ligen Eliyas spun the hydraulic shovel, pushed the giant rock into the Zanskar River, clearing the place for the urgent completion of the Indian strategic road near the Chinese border.
The site is near Chilling village in Ladakh region, about 250 kilometers west of the site of the most serious confrontation between India and China nearly 50 years ago.
When completed, it will be the only way to access much of Ladakh, including the border area. This will put India on par with China, where there is a network of roads and helipads right on the border.
"It will make it easier for the army to move after it is done," Eliyas said, his clothes and face covered with dust.
The protracted conflict in the remote western Himalayas erupted in a bloody clash in June, when 20 Indian soldiers were killed and the Chinese side of unknown casualties. These two Asian giants had a brief bloody border war in 1962.
The 283-kilometer-long Nimmu-Padam-Darcha Expressway (NPD), where Eliyas is working, is expected to be completed in three years. It highlights India's efforts, its latest post-tense duplication efforts, to develop vital infrastructure including roads, tunnels, bridges and airports, along the 3,500 km border. with China.
The road connects to a 8.8 kilometer tunnel that Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi will inaugurate in a few weeks, through the Ladakh snow desert bordering Tibet.
The two main highways linking Ladakh with the rest of India are closed for at least four months in winter. The only way to supply the necessities for Ladakh during these months is by air transport.
With thousands of soldiers stationed at the border and showing no sign of withdrawal, India is pushing harder to clear mountains as a trans-Himalayan road.
"We will not step back in the face of any difficulty for the sake of the country," Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament this month, saying the government has doubled its budget for construction. infrastructure on the border with China.
Indian officials say the construction rush this summer has been accused by China of destabilizing the mountainous areas. But China built its infrastructure here years ago, and India needs to catch up.