Perhaps, it was the shining new black topped road that cuts across the mountains on the other side of the border —outclassing the Indian road link by miles—that prompted Defence Minister A K Antony on Sunday to exclaim that his first ever visit to the Sino-Indian border has been an ‘eye opener’ to the rapid development of infrastructure in the neighbouring country.Minutes after arriving at the 14,200-feet high mountain pass that opened for cross-border trade last year, the Defence Minister said it was a “problem” that there is “no comparison” of the development on the Indian side with the rapid infrastructure growth in China. Antony reiterated that India has a lot of catching up to do and the Government understands the “responsibility of aggressively developing infrastructure” in the region.“There is difficult climate, difficult terrain and poor infrastructure in our area. The infrastructure on their side is far far superior. This has been an eye opener,” said Antony, after landing at the border post on Sunday morning as part of a two day tour to Sikkim—his first after taking over as Defence Minister last year.Antony, who took out the chill at the windy mountain pass with a warm handshake and brief chat with Chinese Army officers across the border—a young Lieutenant of the PLA greeted him with the standard Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai— said he would “vigorously champion” the cause of modernising the armed forces.The minister also said better roads were needed on the Indian side to give an impetus to cross-border trade with China which has just kicked off. “We need to improve infrastructure not only for the Army but also for the civilian population. Before we can increase trade, we have to develop our infrastructure,” he said.Antony also indicated that his ministry would look favourably to proposals to expand the list of permissible goods for trade. In the past, the Defence Ministry has been blamed for restricting the list of import and export items to things like Yak tails, meat, rice, sugar and milk. “In the years to come, more and more items will be included in the trade. We had a good beginning. Our idea is to increase trade gradually,” the minister, who left for New Delhi on Sunday evening, said.However, traders at Gangtok say that unless the list of items for export and import is expanded exponentially, high volumes of trade would not be possible. While, in the first season of trade that took place last year, goods worth only Rs 20 lakh were exchanged, the current season has seen a growth to Rs 35 lakh.Most of the trade this year—the season closed on Friday—took place in the form of rice and sugar exports from India. Goods worth only Rs 7 lakh were imported from the Chinese side.
