Modi To Inaugurate Satellite Tracking Centre in Bhutan
China already has an advanced satellite tracking centre and astronomical observatory at Ngari in occupied Tibet — about 125 kilometres away from the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which serves as a de facto border between India and Tibet in the absence of a settled boundary.
Now ISRO is setting up its ground station in Bhutan which is intended to help the tiny nation take advantage of the South Asia Satellite launched in 2017 by ISRO. However it is obvious that in its secondary role the Centre was part of India’s countermeasures to China’s advanced satellite tracking station in Tibet.
The ISRO had launched the South Asia Satellite on May 5, 2017. India bore the entire expenses for building and launching the satellite. The prime minister himself had in 2014 mooted the idea of having a satellite for all the members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) so that India could share the benefits of its advances in space technology with its neighbours in South Asia. Pakistan stayed away from it although all other SAARC nations joined India in the project.
Both Countries officially maintain that the ISRO ground station will help Bhutan reap the benefits of the South Asia Satellite — particularly in the fields of weather information, tele-medicine and disaster relief. Sources, however, told DH it would help New Delhi track “any hostile move” along the eastern frontier.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Bhutan in the next few weeks to inaugurate the above satellite tracking centre. Modi will be visiting Thimphu on an invitation from his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering. He is also likely to pledge India’s assistance in building a multi-specialty hospital in Bhutan, in addition to reviewing progress in the works of the hydro-power projects that New Delhi is funding in the neighbouring country.
The highlights of Modi’s Bhutan visit will be the inauguration of the satellite tracking and data reception centre. The “ground station” of the Indian Space Research Organisation. is likely to double up as “a strategic asset” for New Delhi, given its location between India and China. Earlier on June 8, Modi had inaugurated a new network of radar systems that New Delhi recently installed in the islands of Maldives the Indian Ocean archipelago.
The system gave India more eyes to keep watch on shipping in the region, apart from serving the stated purpose of helping the Maldives safeguard its sovereignty in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Similarly this ground station is thus going to be second “strategic asset” inaugurated by Modi in the neighborhood.
