New road belt to whip China, Pak

`21,040 crore security project on the anvil

■ A TOTAL OF 945-kmlong lateral roads and 533-km-long axial roads lie in Rajasthan (tentative cost `3,700 crore) and 482-kmlong lateral roads and 219-km-long axial roads in Punjab (tentative cost `1,750 crore)

New Delhi, Jan. 13: The government will construct

44 strategic roads along the border with China and over

2,100 km of axial and lateral roads in Punjab and Rajasthan, abutting Pakistan, a CPWD document shows.

According to an annual report (2018-19) prepared, and released earlier this month by the Central Public Works Department, the agency has been asked to construct 44 “strategically important” roads along the India-China border to ensure quick mobilisation of troops in case of a conflict.

The nearly 4,000-km-long Line of Actual Control between India and China touches areas from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh. The report comes at a time China is giving a priority to projects along its India borders. In 2017, Indian and Chinese troops engaged in a face-off at the Doklam tri-junction after the neighbouring country had begun building road in the area.

The standoff ended on August 28, following a mutual agreement under which China stopped the construction of the road and India withdrew its troops.

“The CPWD has been entrusted with construction of 44 strategically important roads along the IndoChina Border spanning five states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh,” the report stated.

“The total cost of work as per DPRs (Detailed Project Reports) is `21,040 crore (approx.),” the report stated. It said the process of approval of DPRs by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is underway.

The report also stated that lateral and axial roads measuring over 2,100 km will be built with a cost of around `5,400 crore in Rajasthan and Punjab along the Indo-Pakistan border.