Communication and swift movement of troops from one frontal area to another is key to modern warfare. Time and again it has been proven that strategic planning is key to the outcome of any confrontation, specifically the time taken between the incursion and response is most important. India and China share approximately three thousand five hundred kilometres of border, some places strategically more important than others as such require more vigil and guard to protect those positions, but ultimately focus is always to safeguard every inch of our territory. It’s not difficult to secure areas in plains as straight-line vision makes it possible to cover a much wider span as compared to mountainous areas. Infra development is also much more difficult in hilly areas than in plain. BRO and other agencies are continuously maintaining and upgrading the border roads and infra but the major flip in the last few years is clearly visible now. Manifold, an unprecedented, increase in budget allocation with proper planning and strategy has just transformed the whole North East and other border States/UTs. Changes are distinctly visible, airport after airport being built and inaugurated, mobile towers, fibre optics connectivity to remotest areas and of course thousands of kilometres of roads and bridges being made on a war footing. The focus on border villages under ‘Vibrant Villages’ has changed the lives of people now forever. These border villages are our front-line attack areas and better facilities for them will strengthen our ability to thwart any attempt on our country. The topography of many areas is such that during peak winters they are not accessible to the rest of India as such renewed focus is there to make them all weather accessible by building tunnels, bridges and with better materials and techniques. In continuation of sustained efforts to build world-class border infra, as in the last few years, Defence Minister dedicated 28 more projects spread over almost all border States/UTs. Vital 22 bridges are part of these projects and completion of these bridges will boost our connectivity, both civilians and military benefiting. Leading beneficiaries of these projects are again Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, eight projects in Ladakh and four in Jammu and Kashmir. Double lane Srinagar-Sonamarg-Gumri e-inaugurated resulting in better connectivity between Srinagar to Kargil and Leh. Ladakh with numerous helipads, hospitals, university, special bunkers, geothermal and solar power projects, is getting holistic development keeping in view of army requirements and civilian comfort levels with some areas like Demchuk getting roads for the first time. Be it Syom Bridge at Arunachal Pradesh or strategic Jammu-Srinagar highway Bailey Bridge at Ramban or Basti Bridge on Basohli-Bani-Bhadarwah road, the intent is clearly to build the best infra at the earliest. More than five thousand crores worth of such projects were planned, completed and inaugurated in the last two years. All these 103 projects in the year 2022 and 102 such projects in 2021 built by BRO are a testimony to the tremendous work done by Border Road Organisation in such vast and harsh areas, some of these at the highest altitudes in the world and as such beyond words to describe the hurdles faced and still the work completed in record time. Many more such projects of critical importance are already sanctioned, some in the planning stage and others under construction or near completion. The Government is leaving nothing to miss out and every requirement of the army and border villages is being fulfilled keeping in view of recent border incidents. Special solar-powered bunkers, advance landing grounds, all-weather concrete bunkers of tanks and reserve water reservoirs for winter are a few other additions in recent times. With all these infra development projects message to enemies is clear, war is no solution to any problem but if forced on us we are ready to face any challenge, what may come, this is not India of the sixties but one of the well-established world power now.
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