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With China aggressively building up infrastructure on its side of the border, Defence Ministry has decided to build 14 strategic rail lines along the border, and bolster road and infrastructure networks in Ladakh. China has built more than 10,000-km-long rail lines in Tibet and other areas across the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The Government has also set up an empowered committee chaired by the Defence Secretary to oversee infrastructure projects in the northern areas in Ladakh facing China and areas opposite Pakistan in Jammu & Kashmir. The Defence Secretary will go through detailed project reports prepared by the armed forces for the Northern areas and suggest ways to implement them as soon as possible.
These issues came up for discussion here on Tuesday during Defence Minister AK Antonys review of pace of acquisitions of the Army. Army chief General VK Singh and Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma attended the 90-minute meeting along with top brass of the Army and Defence Ministry.
As regards the 14 strategic rail projects, sources said Antony would take up the issue with the Planning Commission in the next few weeks. Most of these projects are located in the North-East, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, sources said, adding the Defence Ministry was according top priority to infrastructure development in these States.
Some of the key railway projects are Missamari (Assam) to Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), North Lakhimpur (Assam) to Along (Arunachal Pradesh) and Murkongselek (Assam)-Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh).
Tawang is strategically important for Indias defence preparedness and has an important military base. The base, at present, gets its logistical support through helicopters. Adverse weather conditions throughout the year made it difficult to maintain the logistical lines.
In the north, the key rail projects are Jammu-Akhnoor-Poonch, Rishikesh-Karanprayag and Tanakpur-Bageshwar (Uttarakhand) besides others. The objective is to have all-weather connectivity and provide weapons, food and other essential items to forward posts.
The Government also sanctioned raising of 100 porter (mule) companies to sustain logistical lines in Ladakh and inaccessible areas of Arunachal Pradesh. These companies of specially bred mules are the lifeline of the Army in north and North-East and each company has 100 mules.
On the issue of modernisation of the Army, Antony asked the officials to frame guidelines to expedite the procurement of 155 mm long range artillery guns, ultra-light howitzers, multi-barrel rocket launchers, Pinaka missiles and raising a Brahmos supersonic cruise missile regiment.
India has not bought even a single long-range artillery gun for the last 25 years in the wake of the Bofors controversy and the Army desperately needs modern guns to maintain operational readiness. The Army needs at least 1,000 artillery guns besides 150 howitzers to fight in the mountains in the north-east. The proposed procurement of these weapons is pegged at Rs 20,000 crore and officials said the process to identify the vendor is progressing well.
Incidentally, this review was the second in the last one fortnight with the first one taking place on April 2. This exercise came about after the Army Chief wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in mid-March pointing out critical shortages of weapons and ammunition.
Besides highlighting obsolete artillery guns, the Army chief had also mentioned about lack of equipment for the Special Forces in his letter. Antony on Tuesday set up an empowered committee headed by the Army Vice Chief to speed up acquisitions. This panel will be on the lines of a committee which oversees procurement for troops stationed at Siachen.
The Special Forces has a list of more than 40 specialised items including sniper rifles, underwater scooter, deep sea diving equipment, high quality parachutes, communication systems, bullet proof jackets and global position systems.
It was also decided to form a joint committee of army and IAF to look into the armys proposal to acquire attack helicopters. The IAF, so far is resisting this move, officials said adding the new panel will study such combat aviation units operated by modern armies of the world.
India plans strategic rail lines to stop China in its tracks
The Government has also set up an empowered committee chaired by the Defence Secretary to oversee infrastructure projects in the northern areas in Ladakh facing China and areas opposite Pakistan in Jammu & Kashmir. The Defence Secretary will go through detailed project reports prepared by the armed forces for the Northern areas and suggest ways to implement them as soon as possible.
These issues came up for discussion here on Tuesday during Defence Minister AK Antonys review of pace of acquisitions of the Army. Army chief General VK Singh and Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma attended the 90-minute meeting along with top brass of the Army and Defence Ministry.
As regards the 14 strategic rail projects, sources said Antony would take up the issue with the Planning Commission in the next few weeks. Most of these projects are located in the North-East, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, sources said, adding the Defence Ministry was according top priority to infrastructure development in these States.
Some of the key railway projects are Missamari (Assam) to Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), North Lakhimpur (Assam) to Along (Arunachal Pradesh) and Murkongselek (Assam)-Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh).
Tawang is strategically important for Indias defence preparedness and has an important military base. The base, at present, gets its logistical support through helicopters. Adverse weather conditions throughout the year made it difficult to maintain the logistical lines.
In the north, the key rail projects are Jammu-Akhnoor-Poonch, Rishikesh-Karanprayag and Tanakpur-Bageshwar (Uttarakhand) besides others. The objective is to have all-weather connectivity and provide weapons, food and other essential items to forward posts.
The Government also sanctioned raising of 100 porter (mule) companies to sustain logistical lines in Ladakh and inaccessible areas of Arunachal Pradesh. These companies of specially bred mules are the lifeline of the Army in north and North-East and each company has 100 mules.
On the issue of modernisation of the Army, Antony asked the officials to frame guidelines to expedite the procurement of 155 mm long range artillery guns, ultra-light howitzers, multi-barrel rocket launchers, Pinaka missiles and raising a Brahmos supersonic cruise missile regiment.
India has not bought even a single long-range artillery gun for the last 25 years in the wake of the Bofors controversy and the Army desperately needs modern guns to maintain operational readiness. The Army needs at least 1,000 artillery guns besides 150 howitzers to fight in the mountains in the north-east. The proposed procurement of these weapons is pegged at Rs 20,000 crore and officials said the process to identify the vendor is progressing well.
Incidentally, this review was the second in the last one fortnight with the first one taking place on April 2. This exercise came about after the Army Chief wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in mid-March pointing out critical shortages of weapons and ammunition.
Besides highlighting obsolete artillery guns, the Army chief had also mentioned about lack of equipment for the Special Forces in his letter. Antony on Tuesday set up an empowered committee headed by the Army Vice Chief to speed up acquisitions. This panel will be on the lines of a committee which oversees procurement for troops stationed at Siachen.
The Special Forces has a list of more than 40 specialised items including sniper rifles, underwater scooter, deep sea diving equipment, high quality parachutes, communication systems, bullet proof jackets and global position systems.
It was also decided to form a joint committee of army and IAF to look into the armys proposal to acquire attack helicopters. The IAF, so far is resisting this move, officials said adding the new panel will study such combat aviation units operated by modern armies of the world.
India plans strategic rail lines to stop China in its tracks
