High road at Chilling: India builds Himalayan bridges and highways to match China
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard
TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2022
TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2022
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
High road at Chilling: India builds Himalayan bridges and highways to match China

South Asia

Reuters
29 September, 2020, 04:10 pm
Last modified: 29 September, 2020, 04:13 pm

Related News

  • Iraq balks at greater Chinese control of its oilfields
  • US envoy urges India to ‘reconsider’ wheat export ban: ‘Will worsen...’
  • Japan and US preparing statement promising to 'deter' China, Nikkei reports
  • India planning to launch 6G services by end of decade: Modi
  • Indo-Nepal ties ‘unshakable like Himalayas’: Modi

High road at Chilling: India builds Himalayan bridges and highways to match China

The protracted standoff in the remote western Himalayan region erupted into a bloody hand-to-hand clash in June in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed and China suffered an unspecified number of casualties

Reuters
29 September, 2020, 04:10 pm
Last modified: 29 September, 2020, 04:13 pm
Ligen Eliyas, an excavator operator for the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), takes a break in his work at a highway construction site in the Ladakh region, India, September 17, 2020. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Ligen Eliyas, an excavator operator for the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), takes a break in his work at a highway construction site in the Ladakh region, India, September 17, 2020. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

Ligen Eliyas deftly turns the excavator's hydraulic arm to push a huge boulder into the Zanskar river below in a cloud of dust, clearing another bit of land for a strategic highway that India is hurriedly building near the Chinese border.

The construction site near the hamlet of Chilling in the Ladakh region is around 250 km (150 miles) west of the area where Indian and Chinese troops are locked in the most serious confrontation in decades.

But when ready, the road will provide the only year-round access to large parts of Ladakh, including the border zone. That will go some way to bringing India on par with China, which has a network of roads and helipads on its side of the border.

"It will become a lot easier for the army after this road is finished," Eliyas said, with parts of his face and khaki uniform caked in fine stone dust.

The protracted standoff in the remote western Himalayan region erupted into a bloody hand-to-hand clash in June in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed and China suffered an unspecified number of casualties. The Asian giants fought a brief but bloody border war in 1962.

The 283-km (175-mile)-long Nimmu-Padam-Darcha (NPD) highway, where Eliyas is working, is expected to be completed in three years, officials said. It highlights the efforts by India, which have been redoubled after the latest tensions, to develop key infrastructure - roads, tunnels, bridges and airfields - along the unsettled 3,500 km (2,170 mile) border with China.

The road will link up with an 8.8-km (5.5-mile) tunnel that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate in coming weeks, opening the snow deserts of Ladakh to the rest of the country all year round.

There are two main highways that connect Ladakh to the rest of India, but they are closed for at least four months every winter. The only way urgent supplies are sent to Ladakh during these months is by air.

With thousands of its troops amassed at the border and no sign of a drawdown, India is now pushing harder to blast and smash its way through the Himalayas.

"We will not back down from taking any big and tough step in the interest of our country," Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament this month, adding the government had doubled the budget for infrastructure work on the China border.

The frenetic construction itself has become a thorny issue this summer with the Chinese complaining that the Indian activity in the mountains was destabilising, Indian officials said. But China built its infrastructure in the area years ago, and it needs to be matched, they said.

"China does not recognise the so-called 'Ladakh Union Territory' illegally set up by India and is opposed to infrastructure building at the border area for the purpose of military control," the office of China's foreign ministry spokesperson said. It added that according to a recent consensus by both sides, no side should be taking any action that complicates the situation at the border area.

China's Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MATTER OF HOURS

China's network of roads and railways, logistics depots and helipads mean that it can move troops to forward areas in a matter of hours, said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, a distinguished fellow at New Delhi think-tank Observer Research Foundation.

For India, it would take days to match those deployments, she said.

"The infrastructure buildup by the Chinese is not only aiming at the quick deployment of forces but also to sustain them for a relatively longer period of time," Rajagopalan said.

Conceived in 1999, India's NPD project moved at a glacial pace till work picked just a couple of year ago, said N.K. Jain, a commander in the state-run Border Roads Organisation (BRO).

Since then, the BRO has built some 100 km of the NPD project, and constructed 11 of the 15 major bridges on the route. "Our work is happening at double the speed in the last two years," Jain said.

New drilling machines that push dynamite sticks deeper and faster into hard rock to blow them apart have improved the speed of construction, said B. Kishen, a BRO executive engineer who is supervising the project near Chilling.

On a recent afternoon, dozens of workers cleared debris from a freshly blasted section of the road. A few kilometres away, another group crouched under an excavator as explosives went off to clear land for another section of the highway.

Work will continue through the bitter winter, when temperatures drop to below minus 40 Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit) and biting winds at altitudes above 11,000 feet (3,300 m) make road construction even more challenging, Kishen said.

The government has identified 73 strategically important roads along the Chinese border, of which 61 are with the BRO, running over 3,300 km (2,000 miles). A parliamentary committee report in March noted that 75% of the work under BRO had been completed.

The full network of roads will cut down travel time between key Indian military bases, allowing for quicker mobilisation of troops and ease patrolling in some forward areas, an Indian official said.

"It will also lead to lower expenditure for the forces," the official said, with all-weather roads replacing the need for expensive airlift operations during the winter months.

"We will have a better chance of catching up with the Chinese."

Himalayas / china / India

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • A packet of US five-dollar bills is inspected at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington March 26, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron
    Dollar price crosses Tk100 in open market 
  • Govt fixes tolls for Padma Bridge
    Govt fixes tolls for Padma Bridge
  • Photo: PID
    Prioritise dev projects, spend wisely: PM Hasina 

MOST VIEWED

  • Labourers wearing masks shift wheat crop from a trolley to remove dust from the crop at a wholesale grain market during an extended nationwide lockdown to slow the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Chandigarh, India April 17, 2020. REUTERS/Ajay Verma/Files
    US envoy urges India to ‘reconsider’ wheat export ban: ‘Will worsen...’
  • Photo :ANI via Hindustan Times
    India planning to launch 6G services by end of decade: Modi
  • File Photo: REUTERS/Altaf Hussain
    Indo-Nepal ties ‘unshakable like Himalayas’: Modi
  • Photo: AFP
    India's April wholesale price inflation accelerates to 15.08%
  • A demonstrator holding the Sri Lankan national flag is silhouetted during the protest against Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, near the Presidential Secretariat, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 15, 2022. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar/File Photo
    Sri Lanka parliament reconvenes, PM warns of critical shortages
  • A man counts Sri Lankan rupees at a money exchange counter in Colombo September 4, 2015. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
    Sri Lankan rupee depreciation swells private credit in March

Related News

  • Iraq balks at greater Chinese control of its oilfields
  • US envoy urges India to ‘reconsider’ wheat export ban: ‘Will worsen...’
  • Japan and US preparing statement promising to 'deter' China, Nikkei reports
  • India planning to launch 6G services by end of decade: Modi
  • Indo-Nepal ties ‘unshakable like Himalayas’: Modi

Features

Despite Bangladesh having about 24,000 km of waterways, only a few hundred kilometres are covered by commercial launch services. Photo: Saad Abdullah

Utilising waterways: When common home-goers show the way

5h | Panorama
Illustration: TBS

How Putin revived Nato

7h | Panorama
The reception is a volumetric box-shaped room that has two glass walls on both the front and back ends and the other two walls are adorned with interior plants, wood and aluminium screens. Photo: Noor-A-Alam

The United House: Living and working inside nature

7h | Habitat
Pcycle team members at a waste management orientation event. Photo: Courtesy

Pcycle: Turning waste from bins into beautiful crafts

8h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Can your coworker be your closest friend?

Can your coworker be your closest friend?

8h | Videos
The mystery behind Pyramid

The mystery behind Pyramid

8h | Videos
Finland, Sweden decide to join NATO

Finland, Sweden decide to join NATO

20h | Videos
Where you can swim for Tk5

Where you can swim for Tk5

22h | Videos

Most Read

1
Representative Photo: Pixabay.
Bangladesh

Microplastics found in 5 local sugar brands

2
Mushfiq Mobarak. Photo: Noor-A-Alam
Panorama

Meet the Yale professor who anchors his research in Bangladesh and scales up interventions globally

3
Impact of falling taka against US dollar
Banking

Taka losing more value as global currency market volatility persists

4
Govt tightens belt to relieve reserve
Economy

Govt tightens belt to relieve reserve

5
Union Capital asked to return Tk100cr FDR to BATBC 
Banking

Union Capital asked to return Tk100cr FDR to BATBC 

6
How Bangladesh can achieve edible oil self-sufficiency with local alternatives
Bazaar

How Bangladesh can achieve edible oil self-sufficiency with local alternatives

The Business Standard
Top
  • Home
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Bangladesh
  • International
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Economy
  • Sitemap
  • RSS

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net

Copyright © 2022 THE BUSINESS STANDARD All rights reserved. Technical Partner: RSI Lab