Two Roads In Ladakh Progressing Fast Amid Border Row
An hour-long meeting took place on Saturday at Maldo on the Chinese side between a delegation led by Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, GOC 14 Corps, and a Chinese delegation headed by Major General Liu Lin, commander of the South Xinjiang military region. The Maldo meeting ended without a breakthrough.
Our Videsh Mantralay said the meeting “took place in a cordial and positive atmosphere” and both sides agreed to work towards peacefully resolving the situation. It stated that India and China will continue military and diplomatic contacts to resolve the border stand-off. The Raksha Mantri on the other hand met the chief of defence staff and the three service chiefs and reviewed the situation along the disputed border in the Ladakh sector.
India is working on two key roads near the Tibetan border in eastern Ladakh — the site of a tense weeks-long border stand-off with the Chinese — to provide connectivity to an important forward area localities that the military calls Sub-Sector North (SSN).
The first is the strategic Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi (DS-DBO) road that provides connectivity to the country’s northern-most base, Daulat Beg Oldi. The second road is being built from Sasoma to Saser La, to eventually provide an alternative route to DBO near the Karakoram pass. The Sasoma-Saser La road axis is south-west of DBO.
Both projects are being executed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) at a very fast pace. Around 11,815 workers have been transported to areas near the Tibetan border in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand for building strategic roads.
India is not allowing the border confrontation with China to hinder strategic road projects in forward areas, including the Ladakh sector, where soldiers of the two nations are eyeball-to-eyeball at four locations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Any Chinese troop build-up in the Galwan valley will threaten the critical 255-km DS-DBO road (also known as the SSN road), and so as not to lose any strategical advantage advantage India is also building an alternative road to DBO.
The road from Sasoma to Saser La, at a height of almost 17,800 feet, is a tough project that falls under “Hardness Index-III”, the BRO’s top-most classification for hard projects, the second official added. Experts believe that the road can be extended to Brang Sa, Murgo and eventually to DBO in the long term.
“There’s a 200% need to have an alternative road to DBO in Sub-Sector North. The DS-DBO road can be interdicted at several choke points by Chinese forces during hostilities. While the road from Sasoma to Saser La can connect with DBO, it will be an engineering challenge due to the terrain. It may require construction of a tunnel too,” said Lieutenant General BS Jaswal (retd), a former Northern Army commander.
It was reported in media that if the DS-DBO project is blocked, the Indian Army will be forced to use aerial supply lines and also build an arduous alternative route linking Sasoma to Murgo to DBO through the glaciated Saser La. Two years ago, the BRO said the Sasoma-Saser La road would be the world’s first motorable glaciated road.
Lieutenant General DS Hooda (retd), also a former Northern Army commander, said the construction of Sasoma-Saser La road in the glaciated terrain posed a huge challenge, especially in the final patches near Saser La.
“If we can build this road and further connect it to DBO, it could provide an alternative route during summer months. However, the all-weather DS-DBO road will remain very important for the army,” Hooda said.
The defence ministry told Parliament’s standing committee on defence last year that the Sasoma-Saser La road was a challenging project because of its peculiarities.
“Due to peculiarity of formation and shifting of moraines, the road suffers continuous shifting resulting in various gradients… The Central Road Research Institute has been approached for providing solution and the proposal based on CRRI recommendation is being prepared,” the ministry told the panel.
Amid the border stand-off, top officials said the BRO would complete all 61 strategic roads assigned to it along the China border by December 2022 for swifter mobilisation of troops and stores to forward areas.
In the first official acknowledgement of a troop build-up along the disputed Tibetan border. Singh last week said a significant number of Chinese troops were present along the LAC and the Indian Army had matched the neighbour’s military moves.
China has marshalled close to 5,000 soldiers and deployed tanks and artillery guns on the Tibetan side of the disputed border in the Ladakh sector, where India has also sent military reinforcements.
The situation of the ground remains unchanged in the midst of efforts to break the stalemate, said officials. They added that increased Chinese air activity had been observed on the other side of the LAC during the last few days and India is taking all reciprocal actions.
