New Delhi, May 20
In a move to address the lack of strategic roads abutting the India-China frontier, India will bring in a legal provision to do away with self-created hurdles which are holding back progress on the much-needed roads used for movement of troops and equipment.

Even as India struggles to construct roads along the India-China frontier, such desolate places in eastern Ladakh have been designated as wildlife reserves. Tribune photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

This is aimed at countering China’s infrastructure.

Beijing has constructed fully metalled roads right up to the frontier on its side while Indian troops in several areas have to deal with dirt tracks.

On the Indian side, construction of 73 strategic roads in the Himalayas has been bogged down due to various reasons, one of them being forest and wildlife clearances Act. Only 16 roads have been completed so far. In the sensitive Eastern Ladakh region, vast areas have been designated as ‘cold desert wildlife sanctuaries’ despite the fact that not a blade of grass grows there and have a non-existent animal life.

This flat plateau had seen major battles in the 1962 war. On similar terrain and ecology on its side, China has gone ahead to provide all-weather connectivity.

After years of wait, the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) are now working to bring about a legal provision that will speed up road work. Named Border Infrastructure Bill, it aims at exempting border infrastructure from all relevant acts of forest and wildlife. The government is looking to exempt all strategic roads within 50 kms of the international border or the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The LAC is the nomenclature for the parts of the border which is still not accepted by the two countries on either sides of the Himalayas. The MHA is piloting the bill in consultation with the states concerned and relevant ministries. It has asked for objection and is working out contentious issues.

The plan is to avoid any blanket ban on infrastructure construction. Each project can have an independent bio-diversity impact assessment committee of experts which will submit a report to the National Board of Wildlife. This route was adopted in Eastern Ladakh and approval is expected soon. “The MoD has filed an interlocutory application in the Supreme Court on exempting strategic roads from the ambit of Wildlife,” AK Antony said in Parliament last week.

Once approved by Parliament, this new Bill will pave the way for smoother connectivity. In the case of Arunachal Pradesh, the MoD has worked out a joint inter-ministry team to speed up forest clearances.

MoD-MHA venture
After years of wait, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Home Affairs are now working to bring about a legal provision that will speed up road work. Named Border Infrastructure Bill, it aims at exempting border infrastructure from all relevant Acts of forest and wildlife.