India–China Border Roads
India–China Border Roads (ICBRs, ICB Roads) is a Government of India project for developing infrastructure along the Sino-Indian border by constructing strategic roads, including bridges and tunnels. The ICBR project is largely in response to Chinese infrastructure development along the borderlands with India.
| India China Border Roads | |
|---|---|
| ICBRs, ICB Roads | |
Highlights in red for Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh | |
| Type of project | Infrastructure development |
| Current status | Ongoing (Establishing connectivity and maintenance) |
| Location | Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh |
| Approved | 1999 |
| Length of roads | |
| Phase 1 | 3,323 km (approved in 2005) |
| Phase 2 | 6,700 km (approved in 2020) |
| Total length | 10,023 km |
| Status | |
| Phase 1 | 15% complete by 2012, 20% complete by 2015 46% complete and 95% connectivity established by 2021 |
| Phase 2 | Ongoing |
| Some stretches of road are in disputed territory | |
As of May 2021, India is constructing at least 177 roads in two phases of over 10,023 km (6,228 mi) total length along its Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China under the "Border Infrastructure and Management Fund" (BIMF) of Ministry of Home Affairs. This includes 73 roads of 3,323 km (2,065 mi) length under ICBR-I (Phase-I) approved in 2005 and additional 104 roads of more than 6,700 km (4,200 mi) length under ICBR-II (Phase-II) approved in 2020.
India has set up an inter-departmental "Empowered Committee" (EC) headed by the Ministry of Defence to expedite the issue resolution and timely completion of ICBR infrastructure after the delay in forest/wildlife clearance and land acquisition, rugged terrain, limited working season due to winter and rains, scarcity of construction material, etc. resulted in the missed deadlines in the past. Some of the important already completed projects include the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie Road (DS-DBO) and Atal Tunnel under Rohtang Pass; and the under-construction important projects include the Sela Tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh and a road-cum-rail tunnel under the Brahmaputra river in Assam.
Several entities are responsible for constructing ICBR, including Border Roads Organisation (BRO) which handles the bulk of the ICBR road construction work, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MoDNER), Central Public Works Department (CPWD), public works departments of respective states and others. At least 67 per cent of the road network assigned to BRO falls under ICBR.
By March 2021, of the 61 ICBR-I roads assigned to BRO, connectivity on 59 roads (3,205 km (1,991 mi)) or 95+ per cent of the total length had been achieved and among these 42 (1,530 km (950 mi)) have been black topped.