After decades of neglect, India builds along China's border

Modi will open 9.2 km longest bridge across the Brahmaputra River for troops movement in Arunachal

For more than five decades, India ignored the roads along its 4,056 kilometre-long (2,520 mile) disputed border with China. The logic was simple: the South Asian nation didn’t want to give Chinese troops an easy path if Beijing ever tried to repeat the brief 1962 border war and encroach into the territory India sees as its own.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to change all that. On Friday, he’s due to open the nation’s longest bridge spanning 9.2 km across the Brahmaputra River to ensure the smooth movement of troops to Arunachal Pradesh, one of India’s most remote regions that is claimed in full by China.

“The bridge across the Brahmaputra into Arunachal Pradesh is a great strategic shift in the thinking in the Indian defence establishment regarding infrastructure development in the borders with China,” said K V Kuber, an independent defense analyst and former colonel in the Indian Army, “The new infrastructure will help the Indian military to be prepared for a decent rebuttal to ward off any misadventure from the Chinese side.”

The bridge is among a slew of infrastructure projects that Modi has fast-tracked since taking office three years ago. The projects include a railway bridge taller than the Eiffel Tower in the disputed region of Kashmir and a train track in the middle of a tiny southern island in the Indian Ocean. They were launched a decade ago under the government of former prime minister Manmohan Singh. Now Modi’s biggest challenge is to see these projects to completion without years-long delays — something those before him have struggled with.

Tense relations

The projects are aimed at asserting India’s dominance in a region where China has already made significant inroads. India and China have tense bilateral relations, despite a $70 billion trading relationship, driven in part by Beijing’s investment in Pakistan, including in the disputed Pakistan-controlled region of Kashmir which is claimed by India.

China’s foreign ministry did not respond to a faxed request for comment.

As India — the world’s biggest arms importer — struggles to upgrade its military from an era dominated by Soviet weaponry, these infrastructure projects may provide some cushion to Modi.

“India has to be prepared for a short, intense war in the years to come and movement of resources from one sector to another — depending on the threat envisaged — is of utmost importance to the Indian armed forces,” said S K Chatterji, an independent defence analyst and a former brigadier in the Indian Army, “This bridge on the Brahmaputra will help India to quickly move resources, including military weapons and equipment at will, to the borders with China along Arunachal Pradesh.”

In Arunachal Pradesh in the Himalayas, which China considers South Tibet, India will follow the bridge over the Brahmaputra by building a 2,000-kilometre highway in the state at a cost of $6 billion.

Bloomberg

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