Budget doubled for roads, bridges on China border, says Rajnath

India has doubled the budget for vital roads and bridges along the undemarcated border with China in recent years in response to Beijing’s rapid infrastructure development on its side, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said yesterday.

Troops of the two countries are locked in their most serious face-offs for years along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) or informal border in the western Himalayas, raising fears of a broader conflict.

One of the reasons for the tensions has been India’s recent construction of roads and airfields near the border in the Ladakh region bordering Tibet, the Chinese side has said.

Singh told parliament that China had been building up its infrastructure in the remote mountains for decades and the government was trying to close the gap.

“Our government too has stepped up the budget for border infrastructure development to about double the previous levels. As a result, more roads and bridges have been completed in the border areas,” he said. He provided no figure. Military officials say the development of roads and airfields on both sides of the border has also helped troops mobilise quickly in large numbers and in close proximity at some points in the Ladakh area.

Singh said Indian and Chinese troops have had face-offs on the unsettled border in the past, but the scale of deployment of troops and the number of disputed areas was much more than the past.

“As of now, the Chinese side has mobilised a large number of troops and armaments along the LAC as well as in the depth areas,” he said, listing Gogra, Kongka La and the north and south banks of the Pangong lake as “friction points.”

“In response to China’s actions, our armed forces have also made appropriate counter deployments in these areas to ensure that India’s security interests are fully protected,” he said.

On Monday, two Indian officials said Chinese troops were laying a network of fibre optic cables at the Himalayan flashpoint, suggesting they were digging in for the long haul despite high-level talks aimed at resolving the standoff there.

Such cables, which would provide forward troops with secure lines of communication to bases in the rear, have recently been spotted to the south of Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh, a senior government official said.

A third Indian official said that there had been no significant withdrawals or reinforcements on either side since the foreign ministers of the two countries met last week.

“It is as tense as earlier,” he said. A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry cast doubt on the report of the cable network.

“As far as I know, the relevant report is not true,” the spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said when asked yesterday.

China and India would remain in communication through diplomatic and military channels, Wan told a news briefing in Beijing.

Chinese defence officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Above Leh, Ladakh’s main city, Indian fighter planes flew throughout the morning on Monday, their engines booming and echoing across the valley surrounded by brown, barren mountains.

“Our biggest worry is that they have laid optical fibre cables for high-speed communications,” the first official said, referring to the lake’s southern bank, where Indian and Chinese troops are only a few hundred metres apart at some points.