Environmental clearances, land acquisitions: Rajnath chairs high-level meet to review infra development along northern borders

This includes the construction of additional advance landing grounds, railway tracks, tunnels, electricity and communication infrastructure as well as development of border villages under the Vibrant Villages programme.

It was also decided to set up a committee of secretaries — from ministries of Defence, Power, Road Transport and Highways, Telecommunications among others — that will meet at frequent intervals to fast track pending projects.

“Several of these projects came in forest land and thus fast-tracking permissions was among the key issues discussed in the meeting,” an official told The Indian Express. “There was also an emphasis on creation of multipurpose infrastructure projects and ensuring regular monitoring for them.”

In the meeting, the Defence Minister said all pending projects are of top priority, stating that the ‘whole of nation’ approach should be adopted in matters of national security.

Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy R K Singh, Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change Bhupender Yadav, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami and Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh Brig (Dr) B D Mishra (Retd) attended the meeting.

Also present were National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari, Army Chief General Manoj Pande, Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and other senior government officials.

In the past three years, there has been a significant growth in border infrastructure, particularly along the northern borders, in terms of new roads, bridges and tunnels to boost forward connectivity as well as habitat and associated infrastructure for the thousands of additional troops deployed along the LAC after India got locked into a military standoff with China in eastern Ladakh.

There has also been a remarkable push for border infrastructure development in the Northeast along the LAC.

In February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an allocation of Rs 5,000 crore for border infrastructure projects for 2023-24, up from Rs3,500 crore in the previous fiscal.

In January this year, the Defence Minister inaugurated 28 border infrastructure projects worth Rs 724 crore.

Among the projects inaugurated was the strategic Siyom bridge at Arunachal Pradesh which will aid faster induction of troops and heavy equipment to forward areas along the borders, as well as other projects in Ladakh, Sikkim, J&K, Punjab, Uttarakhand.