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The skirmish between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Galwan Valley in June 2020 was the inflection point that sharpened the country’s focus on building military capabilities and spurred unprecedented infrastructure construction to counter the adversary’s moves, Chaudhry said.

“China is pumping huge sums into building infrastructure in areas across the LAC facing Ladakh, Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh to support its forward deployments,” he said. “It is ahead of India in the race to build border infrastructure, but we have reduced that lead significantly during the last three years and hope to almost close the gap in three to four years.”

Bilateral ties plummeted to a six-decade low after the Galwan Valley clash killed 20 Indian soldiers. According to India’s assessment, PLA’s casualties were twice as many as the Indian Army’s though Beijing officially claimed that only four Chinese soldiers were killed.

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China’s unrelenting infrastructure push over a span of just three years, confirmed by satellite images, encompasses the construction of new airbases, missile sites, roads, bridges, reinforced bunkers, underground facilities to protect military assets from aerial strikes, accommodation for soldiers and ammunition depots.

India has raced to match the Chinese moves to respond to any new contingency, Chaudhry said.

BRO, which is at the centre of the India’s border infrastructure push, has completed nearly 300 crucial projects, including roads, tunnels, bridges and airfields, in the country’s farthest frontiers during the last three years at a cost of ₹8,000 crore to boost military mobility and logistics support for deployed forces, he said.

While 205 of these BRO projects were dedicated to the country during the last two years, defence minister Rajnath Singh will inaugurate 90 projects on September 12, including 23 roads, 63 bridges, the Nechiphu tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh and two airfields in West Bengal. On the same day, Singh will remotely lay the foundation stone for the upgradation of the Nyoma airfield near the LAC in eastern Ladakh to a full-fledged base for fighter operations. A crew of women officers will spearhead the Nyoma project, as first reported by Hindustan Times.

Another 60 key projects will be completed by the year-end, including the Sela tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh, the world’s longest twin-lane tunnel above 13,000 feet that will allow faster deployment of weapons and soldiers to forward areas in the Tawang sector. (The tunnel will be ready by the end of September.)

BRO has also completed the construction of 59 of the 61 strategic roads assigned to it near the Chinese border in Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, Chaudhry said. The two remaining roads --- the Munsiyari-Milam road in Uttarakhand and the Banga-Janga-Gompa to Naga GG road in Arunachal Pradesh --- are expected to be ready by 2025. These 61 roads together account for a total length of 3,417 km.

“Infrastructure construction has picked up speed during the last few years,” Chaudhry said. BRO constructed an average of 934 km of roads every year during 2020-23, compared to 809 km per year during 2015-20, and 632 km per year during 2008-15, official data shows. Bridge construction has also moved at a brisk pace. It built an average of 3,652 m of bridges every year during 2020-23, compared to 2,715 m per year during 2015-20, and 1,224 m per year during 2008-15.

Funding for projects has gone up significantly over the years and BRO has received unqualified support from the highest levels of the government, he said.

BRO’s expenditure, which ranged from ₹3,305 crore per year to ₹4,670 crore per year during 2008-17, has climbed steadily in recent years and is projected to be around ₹15,000 crore in 2023-24, the data shows. The expenditure stood at ₹12,340 crore in 2022-23, ₹9,375 crore in 2021-22, ₹8,763 crore in 2020-21 and ₹7,737 crore in 2019-20.

“Infusion of latest technologies was possible because of availability of funds. These technologies have helped us tide over many construction challenges and facilitated speedy execution of projects,” Chaudhry added.

BRO is pushing ahead with some key projects in the Ladakh sector even as India and China are in talks to resolve problems along the LAC. At the 19th round of talks between corps commanders of the two armies on August 13 and 14, the two sides agreed to resolve the remaining issues along the LAC in a speedy manner through continued dialogue.

Indian and Chinese soldiers have thus far disengaged from Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Gogra (PP-17A) and Hot Springs (PP-15). However, both armies still have tens of thousands of troops each and advanced weaponry deployed in the Ladakh theatre, and problems at Depsang and Demchok are still on the negotiating table.