Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, and especially the strategic locations in Arunachal Pradesh, reinforced the government’s commitment to the region’s security and development. During his tour, Defence Minister Singh is set to engage in talks with commanders of the eastern command of the Air Force and Army in Tezpur.
Further, on October 24, the defence minister will spend time with the security personnel deployed at the strategically vital Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh. Security analysts of the NE region say that the visit of the union defence minister to the forward locations underscored the government’s emphasis on national defence and border security. Singh’s plan to spend time with the soldiers in forward areas during the festival of Dussehra will boost the morale of the security personnel while performing their duties in difficult terrain in rough winter weather in sub-zero temperatures.
Sharing his schedule and objectives for the visit, defence minister Rajnath Singh took to social media platform X, “Today, on October 23, I shall be arriving in Tezpur for a two-day visit to the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. During this visit, I will have the privilege of interacting with our Armed Forces personnel stationed in this region, as well as visiting the forward areas.” It should be mentioned that the BJP-led central government has taken up many development projects along the borders of Arunachal Pradesh to make things a bit easier for the forces in the difficult terrain. Specifically, BRO has constructed a number of roads and bridges in the border areas for swift communication between the forces.
On March 27, 2023, the Indian government is considering a proposal to construct 37 more roads with a cumulative length of 875 km along the India-China Border.
This 13,000-crore work has been proposed under the India-China Border Roads Programme (ICBR) and around seventy percent of these roads under this scheme will be built in Arunachal Pradesh as per the proposal. Currently, the first and second phases of the ICBR scheme are underway, and these involve the construction of 1,435km of roads in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.
