Amid military standoff with China, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police has decided to deploy its specialised engineering wing for constructing certain roads and foot tracks along the LAC. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has taken a first-time decision to deploy its specialised engineering wing for constructing certain roads and foot tracks along the Line of Actual Control to speed up connectivity projects with its posts in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. Official sources told PTI that the border force, ITBP, has taken up the challenge to construct four out of the 32 roads under phase-II of the India-China Border Roads project and two out of the total 18 foot tracks sanctioned to it by the government. They said the roads of varying lengths of about one to two km, connecting ITBP border posts in the Himalayan ranges, are in the Ladakh region’s 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China while the foot tracks, which are used by troops during patrols, are in the Arunachal Pradesh area. Officials said the engineering wing of the force, an essential component of the ITBP since its raising in 1962, has been roped in for the task in order to speed up the border posts connectivity work. The ITBP engineering wing, restructured over the years, is tasked to take care of the construction of operational structures, including border outposts, residential and office buildings, solar lightings, power units and water heating systems, improvised micro-hydel power projects and green houses in snow-clad border areas apart from devising strategic defences around a border post. Currently, the government has initiated phase-II of the India-China Border Roads (ICBR) project that covers several roads, foot tracks and border posts. According to official data, 538.50 km of road have been laid along the China border till November last year. Union Minister of State for Home affairs Nityanand Rai had recently said during the 60th ITBP raising day on October 24 that the process to sanction new border battalions for the ITBP is in the last stages. The about 90,000 personnel-strong ITBP was raised in the aftermath of the 1962 Chinese aggression. Image Source