NEW DELHI: India has pressed into raising its capacity to patrol the waters of the Pangong Tso which has become the genesis of the standoff between the Chinese PLA and the Indian Army since May, this year.
A senior official confirmed that India is manufacturing steel hull boat in order to counter the Chinese activities within the waters of Pangong Tso lake.
There have been incidents of aggressive Chinese boat patrolling in the lake and have been ramming their boats into the Indian boats which have even led to fractures to the Indian troops in September 2019.
“The new boat will be more powerful, longer in length and will have steel hull which will be able to withstand the ramming activity which the PLA has been resorting to in the recent years to stop Indian Army from patrolling the water of the lake," another source confirmed to The New Indian Express.
The new boat is being built indigenously and will be able to carry a platoon size troop count, between 24 to 30. Pangong Tso is located at about 14,000 feet and is 134 kilometer long of which one third, about 45 kilometers, is under the Indian control.
The patrolling in the lake has assumed importance since the unilateral mobilisation of the Chinese troops on the Finger 4 which lies on the Northern Bank of the Lake. “With the faster movement in the lake we will have an option to mobilise troops and counter the Chinese in this area.”
India has been claiming its area upto the location of the hill spur which is Finger 8 and Chinese have been trying to get upto Finger 2. With the standoff the Chinese have been stopping the Indian patrols much before Finger 4. Fingers are the names given to the mountain spurs jutting into the lake.