Forty-five years after the Sino-Indian conflict, New Delhi has finally decided to build its road-infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the western sector, facing Chinese-occupied Aksai Chin in northern Ladakh.

Under the overall coordination of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), decks are being cleared for a major axis connecting Leh with remote outposts of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Army who man the sensitive area.

Official sources confirmed to The Indian Express that within the next five years, a road linking Leh with Shyok, Murgo, Daulat Beg Oldi, near the Karakoram Pass, will be built so that the LAC can be manned more effectively. It was this area — from Demchok to Chushul to Spanggur Gap to Hot Springs to Chip-Chap river — that bore the burnt of the Chinese aggression in 1962 in the western sector.

Even today, Chinese troops routinely flex muscle in the Chip-Chap river area which they perceive to be part of their territory.

In the second week of May, Prime Minister’s Special Envoy Shyam Saran visited all important outposts from Demchok to Daulat Beg Oldi to get a first-hand account of the existing

infrastructure in the western sector.

Before going to the area, Saran was briefed by the Army’s DGMO, ITBP chief, External Affairs Ministry officials and the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) chief. He will submit a detailed report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Even today, it takes an ITBP supply mule convoy 16 days to reach Murgo from Shyok as there are no roads and air-drops depend on availability of Army helicopters. There is no telephone connectivity — an ITBP jawan has to pay Rs 25 per minute (subsidized from Rs 95 per minute) to speak to his family over the INMARSAT.

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