It is about time that India sets out its ambitions for linking the entire Himalayan frontier via a rail corridor running from Leh in Jammu & Kashmir to Hawai in Arunachal Pradesh
The recent announcement by the government to fast track the railway projects in the Himalayan border areas has refocused attention on the strategic infrastructure requirements of the India’s Himalayan frontier. For centuries, the Himalayas remained a landscape of exchange of many things including goods, people, and the philosophy of Buddhism. The Chinese on their part, extended the southern flank of the silk route into the Himalayas all the way from Ladakh and Himachal to Nathu La, located in the eastern Himalayas. Unfortunately, the post-colonial era heralded an acrimonious beginning with the closure of the famous Leh-Yarkand route, China’s annexation of Tibet and India launching its Forward policy in response to the border tensions. This resulting war of 1962 left India humiliated and significantly under prepared to defend these frontiers.