With eye on China, Army to set up new operational command along Line of Actual Control
A new operational command of the Indian Army is set to come up along the Line of Actual Control in the Himachal-Uttarakhand sector of the India-China border.
In Short
- Army to set up new operational command along LAC in central sector of Indo-Sino border.
- Decision made after assessments showed the sector to be the most vulnerable.
- Setting up of ops command would involve posting more men in the region.
The Indian Army has decided to establish a new division-level operational formation along the 344-kilometer Line of Actual Control (LAC) that separates India and China in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Plans for the new operational formation along the Indo-Sino LAC have not yet been made public, but sources confirmed the development to India Today.
The decision to set up a new operation command, which implicitly means that more Indian troops will be posted in the area, was taken after internal Army assessments showed that the Himachal-Uttarakhand sector of the Indo-Sino border is the most vulnerable and could be the next area to witness a confrontation between the two nuclear-powered nations' armies.
The Himachal-Uttarakhand sector also includes two areas that are disputed between India and China: Barahoti and Pulam Sumda. Both these locations have seen several transgressions by Chinese soldiers.
Besides the setting up of a new operation command, the Army is also focusing on linking several mountain passes in the central sector (Himachal and Uttarakhand).
(An approximate Google Maps location of Bara Hoti, one of the sites disputed between India and China in the central sector)
Connecting seven critical passes - Niti, Lipulekh, Thang La 1 and Tsangchok La by 2020 and Mangsha Dhura, Lampiya Dhura Nuwe Dhura by 2024 - is now a "priority," Lieutenant General Vijay Singh said at the on-going Army Commanders conference in New Delhi.
The Army wants "intra-sector connectivity within central sector & inter-sector connectivity with neighbouring areas," Lieutenant General Singh added.
Sources also told India Today that keeping the plan to speed up road building in the central sector in mind, the Bareilly-based 6 Mountain Division, which is tasked to protect the central sector of the India-China border, has been warned that "there could be more pressure for China in this area". Formations have accordingly been asked to stay vigilant, sources added.
NEW OPERATIONAL COMMAND
Setting up a fresh operational command in the Himachal-Uttarakhand sector of the Indo-Sino border would mean that more men would be posted in the area. This along with the plan to link mountain passes to road heads would ensure faster movement of troops and equipment, sources said.
Incidentally, the central sector of the India -China border has been most peaceful. While there are territorial disagreements between New Delhi and Beijing in the sector, India and China have exchanged maps on the border alignment of the sector unlike in the western sector, which runs along Ladhak, or the eastern sector, which runs from Sikkim to Arunachal Pradesh.
The eastern sector was near where Indian and Chinese armies were locked in one of the longest stand-off in the recent times. Troops deployed eyeball-to-eyeball for over two months on the Doklam plateau in Bhutan.
The stand-off ended after China agreed not to construct a road through the Doklam plateau and both sides subsequently pulled back on September 28,m days before the BRICS Summit.
Indian troops pulled back about 200 meters back to their posts while soldiers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army pulled back around 600 meters from the stand-off site.