India plans to build three strategic rail links close to its disputed border with China, according to a government report that highlights the huge challenges of improving infrastructure in the region.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence report, seen by AFP Friday, said the three rail lines will link the northeastern state of Assam with neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh state, which China claims in its entirety. “China is creating a (border) rail network and so should we,” committee chairman Satpal Maharaj told AFP. One of the proposed lines will terminate in Tawang, a heavily-militarised area of Arunachal that borders Bhtuan and Tibet.
The disputed borders between India and China have been the subject of 14 rounds of fruitless talks since 1962, when the two nations fought a brief but brutal war over the issue. Chinese infrastructure build-up along the frontier has become a major source of concern for India, which increasingly sees China as a longer-term threat to its security than traditional rival.
