NEW DELHI: While the Indian Army and People’s Liberation Army are locked in a standoff in Eastern Ladakh, the area of "Rest of Arunachal Pradesh (RALP)" is gaining attention. Sources in the Army feel India is boosting its road infrastructure and is reorienting the forces as China has raised its infrastructure and deployments on its side.
Arunachal Pradesh is generally divided into Kameng area on the west and Rest of Arunachal Pradesh. "Rest of Arunachal Pradesh is an area of concern for us," a source said. Also admitting the need for better infrastructure, the officer said that we have also raised our deployment in the RALP. "Till 2010 there was only one Division of the Army for the entire RALP but now a major deployment of the 3 Corps is responsible for the LAC," the source said adding that Chinese have built roads all across.
India's Border Roads Organisation is focusing on the area for roads with a push from the government. One of the biggest projects to connect the remote locations of Arunachal Pradesh is in process with Detailed Project Reports finalized.
This will be the Trans-Arunachal highway which was delayed due to land compensation. As informed earlier by Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, "The Arunahcal Frontier highway will connect Dirang-Tawang road, Nafra, Lada, Bameng, Chayangtajo, Sarli, Damin, Parsi Parlo, Tali, Taliha, Siyum, Mechuka, Tato, Payum, Tuting, Singa, Dibang valley and Anjaw onwards upto Vijaynagar."
Rijiju had said that this will be one of the toughest and biggest border road projects in independent India. Sources also added that for the sake of better integration of the border population and faster connectivity two tunnels have been planned under Brahmaputra and the DPR for one of them is complete.
The Engineer Task Force of the exclusive Mountain Strike Corps (17 Corps) are also busy developing the road infrastructure as they have specialised equipment to continue work in harsh terrain. Sources added that there also has been reorientation of the forces towards the LAC since there have been relative peace in the areas of the Northeast.
he RALP has gained attention since Chinese PLA mobilized its reserve troops to the training areas after the standoff began in Eastern Ladakh and since then they have remained there.
Lt Gen MK Pandey, Commander in Chief, Eastern Command recently said, "We have observed build up by Chine close to LAC essentially in terms of habitat and that has led to correspondingly a greater number of troops that are located there. It is an area where we have differing areas of perception on the LAC."
He was commenting on the area of Asaphila where both India and China have areas of differing perceptions. "The Chinese have become aggressive with increased patrolling and increased frequency of the senior commanders towards the LAC. They come for patrols and make a mess. They even leave tents and spades," added another source.
Eastern Command handles the 1346 kilometers long Line of Actual Control including Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. This command has three corps 33 Corps (Sikkim), 4 Corps (Kameng Sector) and 3 Corps (Rest of Arunachal Pradesh) to handle the LAC.