The Union Cabinet on Wednesday sanctioned seven new battalions and sector headquarte(operational border base) with additional manpower strength of 9,400 personnel for the India-China LAC guarding force Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
The Cabinet also granted sanction for the construction of the 4.1-km Shinkun La tunnel on the Nimu-Padam-Darcha road link to provide all-weather connectivity to the border areas of Ladakh.
A total of 9,400 posts will be created for the new battalions and the sector headquarters, both of which will be established by 2025-26.
An outlay of Rs 1,808.15 crore is estimated for the creation of the new battalions and the sector headquartefor the non-recurring expenditure on construction of office and residential buildings, land acquisition, arms and ammunition purchase.
The creation of the new battalions and the supervisory offices will entail a recurring expenditure of Rs 9,63.68 crore towards the salaries and ration.
The proposal was cleared after the meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to the Government sanction, the fresh manpower will be utilised for manning 47 new border posts and a dozen “staging camps” or troops bases along this frontier. The armies of India and China are engaged in a standoff in Ladakh since 2020.
Presently, the ITBP has 176 border out posts (BOPs) along the LAC.
In order to strengthen surveillance along the frontier, the Cabinet Committee on Security sanctioned creation of 47 BOPs and 12 Staging Posts. The works on these BOPs are underway, officials said.
The BOPs and Staging Posts will require additional manpower for which the Cabinet on Wednesday accorded sanction for creation of seven new battalions and the sector headquartefor their supervision, they said. The 90,000 personnel strong ITBP was raised in the aftermath of the 1962 Chinese aggression and it is tasked to guard the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) on India’s eastern flank. ITBP is also the Lead Intelligence Agency on this frontier.
The construction of the 4.1-km Shinkun La tunnel on the Nimu-Padam-Darcha road link will provide all-weather connectivity to the border areas of Ladakh.
Elaborating on the cabinet decision, Union minister Anurag Thakur said the tunnel will be completed by December 2025 at a cost of 1,681 crore.
The length of the tunnel will be 4.1 km. An approach road will also be built by December 2025.
The Shinkun La tunnel will provide all-weather road connectivity to Ladakh and this will be the shortest route to the border areas of the Union territory, Thakur said.
“The Cabinet Committee on Security today approved the Shinku La tunnel for the Ladakh area which will provide all-weather connectivity to the Ladakh region with the entire country,” the minister said.
“This (project) is also very important as far as the security and safety of the country is concerned.... It will also help in the movement of our security forces in that region,” he added.
Rs 4,800 cr OK’d for development of border villages, to stop migration
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved Rs 4,800 crore allocation for the Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP), a Centre scheme, to ensure development of villages along the northern border areas.
The financial allocation for 2022-23 to 2025-26 was approved at a meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and will include Rs 2,500 crore for the development of roads infrastructure, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur told reporters.
The VVP was announced by the Centre last year.
The scheme will provide funds for the development of essential infrastructure and the creation of livelihood opportunities in 19 districts and 46 border blocks in four States of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Ladakh along the northern land border of the country, the Minister said.
Thakur said the comprehensive development of villages along the northern border will improve the quality of life of people living there and help in encouraging them to stay in their native locations in these areas, thereby reversing the out-migration and adding to improved security of the border.
On a question if the decision is linked with strengthening the security in border villages with China, the Minister made it clear that those areas where development had not reached and the people of such areas had to migrate out, an opportunity has been provided to them to ensure they get employment and self-employment opportunities as the development will reach their villages on the same lines as that in other villages.
“You can see this linking it with national security or the development of these villages, there can be different perspectives, but these villages will become developed and it is also important from the security perspective. We have taken several steps to ensure India’s security. Where India was an importer of defence equipment, now it is doing exports under Make in India in the defence sector,” Thakur added.
