Breaking


Showing posts with label india-china border. Show all posts
Showing posts with label india-china border. Show all posts

Sunday, 10 May 2015

09:56

China's hyperactive infrastructure building on their side of the border has forced India to take corrective steps on its own hills.

Continued...

China's hyperactive infrastructure building on their side of the border has forced India to take corrective steps on its own hills.

For example, Arunachal Pradesh, the largest among the eight Northeastern states, and a state that borders Bhutan (160 km), China (1,080 km) and Myanmar (440 km), has less than 15 km of railway lines till date.


So, it's not surprising that three out of four proposed rail projects, which are likely to be funded by the ministry of defence, will be rolled out in the strategically located Arunachal Pradesh.


One of those lines, the 378 km-long Misamari (Assam)-Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh) one, for example, will be a key line strategically, as it would cater to the mobility of the armed forces stationed at a base near Misamari (near Tezpur, Assam) that's headed by a lieutenant general, an officer just one rank below the Army General.
Rare Alliance 

Rare Alliance

This may be one of the very few times that the defence ministry is set to join hands with the Railways to lay tracks.

The last time this happened was for the Sakri-Nirmali rail line, a Rs 350-crore project in Bihar that provides an alternative route to Northeast India; the project was partly funded by the ministry of defence during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government. 

The project included construction of a rail-cumroad bridge on the Kosi river at Nirmali, connecting Darbhanga in Bihar with New Jalpaiguri, a gateway to Assam and the Northeast. No deadline has been set as yet for the current projects.

The preliminary surveys have been undertaken and are under examination, according to railway officials looking into this matter. 

"The projects are at an advanced stage, and work will formally start once an MoU is signed between the defence ministry and the railways", says one of the officials.
Defence ministry and Railways will Work Together in Northeast: Suresh Prabhu

Suresh Prabhu, minister of railways, sheds light on the projects in the Northeast. Edited excerpts:

On rail connectivity to the Northeast

Our idea is to bring in total rail connectivity to the state capitals of the Northeast. We have progressed well in that direction. And for the first time we had an emotional connectivity and not just physical connectivity with the Northeast when we held the Railway Week there (in Guwahati in April). The Railway Week was never organised in that region before. Imagine, it has been happening for the last 70 years, but has never been held in the Northeast. 

On working together with the defence ministry

The defence ministry and we have been thinking about working together to bring in even better (rail) connectivity to the Northeast. I will give details at an appropriate time. We (Railways) are already near Itanagar (the capital city of Arunachal Pradesh). We will definitely do work on our own as well as work with the ministry of defence to build a railway network in the region. 

On his visits to the Northeast

(As railway minister) I have travelled to a number of places in the region. Recently, I went to Arunachal Pradesh, up to Tawang (bordering China).

 More Details


Source : The Economic Times. 

0
By at No comments:
Labels: , ,
09:45

Why Defence Ministry may fund railways projects worth almost Rs 1.4 lakh crore near India-China border

Why Defence Ministry may fund railways projects worth almost Rs 1.4 lakh crore near India-China border 


11th Infantry Brigade was defending Walong under numerous handicaps. There being no road beyond Tezu which is 230 km south. There was a severe shortage of artillery, rations, ammunition, winter clothing and defence stores at Walong.

This inscription at a war memorial in Arunachal Pradesh's sleepy town of Walong explains why the Indian Army was forced to retreat from the eastern-most locations along the McMahon Line during the 1962 India-China war. Over five decades later, concrete roads have been built up to the border.

And, now, if the government has its way, railway tracks will be laid up to Tezu and Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and Leh in Jammu & Kashmir, thereby providing a leg up to mobility of troops and ammunition in the north-eastern state that borders China.


"The defence ministry and we have been planning to work together to bring in better [rail] connectivity to the Northeast," railway minister Suresh Prabhu told ET Magazine in his Rail Bhawan office earlier this week. 

Last month, defence minister Manohar Parrikar revealed that the Railways would set up a station in Arunachal Pradesh near the India-China border, and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) would be signed between the two ministries to execute the project. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as a part of south Tibet and objects to building of new infrastructure there. India refutes the claim as absurd. 

Catching up with the Dragon

As ET Magazine has learnt, the defence ministry may fund four railway projects in the areas bordering India and China totalling a railway line of about 1,400 km that may cost up to Rs 1.4 lakh crore if a simple calculation of Rs 80 crore to Rs 100 crore per km of railway construction in hilly terrain is factored in. The costs may go up depending on the number of tunnels on the route, something that will be known only after detailed surveys and f .. 

A railway ministry official says on the condition of anonymity that preliminary surveys have been already undertaken on four routes — Murkongselek to Rupai (both in Assam) via Pasighat, Tezu and Parasuramkund in Arunachal Pradesh; Misamari (Assam) to Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh); North Lakhimpur to Silapathar (both Assam) via the t own of Along in Arunachal Padesh; and Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) to Leh via Manali.


"We are expecting the ministry of defence to release about `345 crore soon for detailed investigations and finalisation of alignments," says the official. "Money is not any constraint here. The real challenge will be to execute these projects in the Himalayas in a time-bound manner," says another official in Rail Bhawan. 

When contacted, Sitanshu Kar, principal spokesperson of the ministry of defence, said he has nothing more to add to what his minister Parrikar had said last month.

To be sure, India lags China in building infrastructure, including a rail network, on the Northeast border. An aggressive China has already inched closer to the Indian border in Sikkim when it completed building a 258-km rail line between Lhasa and Shigatse (Xigaze). 

The Tibetan city of Shigatse is to the north of Sikkim. But what seems to have worried New Delhi more is China beginning surveys for a new 435 km-long railway line from Lhasa to Nyingchi, a small town bordering Arunachal Pradesh. 

Monika Chansoria, senior fellow and head of the China-study programme at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies in the Capital, says New Delhi's decision to expand the railway network to the India-China border is a welcome, albeit dilatory move. 

"The already operational infrastructure on the Chinese side including rail links has added to the strategic and tactical mobility, given that the transportation capabilities of the PLA [China's military] were rather limited until a few years back, remaining heavily reliant on ground assets, and primarily tactical in reach," she says. 

 To be Continued ...


Source:The Economic Times.

0
By at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Monday, 13 April 2015

10:53

Railways, Defence to jointly build Rail Station in Arunachal Pradesh near India-China border: Defence Minister

Railways, Defence to jointly build Rail Station in Arunachal Pradesh near India-China border: Defence Minister

PANAJI: Indian Railways will soon set up a station in Arunachal Pradesh near the India-China border, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday.

“A draft of the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) is ready and will be signed soon,” Parrikar said, adding he has spoken in detail about the project to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

The defence minister said that the “gravity” of the border issue between China and India has come down as far as Arunachal Pradesh is concerned.

Parrikar said instances of transgression by China into the Indian territory have reduced in the last one year owing to confidence building measures between the two sides. “The border dispute with China is not new. It has been existing right from the time of India’s Independence. It is an imaginary line and there are some issues which are related to perception,” Parrikar said ahead of PM Modi’s scheduled visit to China next month.

“..In last few years we have taken certain steps. We have built confidence and the dispute has frozen. Compared to last year, this year the (instances of) transgression is less,” he said.

“Their army walks into the territory which we consider as ours. But these confusion areas have reduced, the number is also less during last one year,” he said.

Responding to a question whether Modi would take up the border dispute issue during his visit, Parrikar said, “I think when he (Modi) goes there, he can sort out some issues.”

China had sent alarm bells ringing a few weeks back with its plans to build a 540-kilometre strategic high-speed rail link between Tibet and Nepal passing through a tunnel under Mt Everest, a move that could raise alarm in India about the Communist giant’s growing influence in its neighbourhood.

“A proposed extension of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to the China-Nepal border through Tibet would boost bilateral trade and tourism as there is currently no rail line linking the two countries,” state-run China Daily reported today.

The rail line was expected to be completed by 2020. However, there was no word on the cost of the project.

The 1,956-km long Qinghai-Tibet railway already links the rest of China with the Tibetan capital Lhasa and beyond.

Wang Mengshu, a rail expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that engineers will face a number of difficulties once the project begins.

“If the proposal becomes reality, bilateral trade, especially in agricultural products, will get a strong boost, along with tourism and people-to-people exchanges,” he said.

Such a plan could see a tunnel being built under Mount Everest, the China Daily said.

“The changes in the elevation along the line are remarkable. The line is probably have to go through Qomolangma so that worker may have to dig some very long tunnels,” Wang said. Qomolangma Mountain is the Tibetan name for Mt Everest.

Restrained by rugged Himalayan mountains with its “remarkable” changes in elevation, trains on the line would probably have a maximum speed of 120 kmph.

Wang said that the project is being undertaken at Nepal’s request and that China has begun preparatory work.

Losang Jamcan, Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, told Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav during his visit to Tibet’s provincial capital Lhasa last month that China plans to extend the Tibet railway to Kermug, the Chinese town nearest to Nepal border where a border trade port has been built.

Besides Nepal, China had earlier announced plans to extend its Tibetan rail network to Bhutan and India.

During his recent visit to Nepal, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had asked the officials to conduct a feasibility study to extend the rail network to Kathmandu and beyond, the report said.

Hu Shisheng, Director of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told official media earlier that the aim of the rail line is to simply improve the local economies and people’s livelihoods.
0
By at No comments:
Labels: , ,