India–China border infrastructure
In the context of the border tensions between India and China, many of these infrastructure projects in the borderlands are considered strategic in nature.
China is constructing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Azad Kashmir which is an area claimed by India.
Pakistan and China have also built the strategic Karakoram Highway, which connects Pakistan-held India-claimed Gilgit to Xinjiang.
Patrolling points provide a truer sense of the extent of India's limits of actual control.
Under the 4G Saturation project, the BSNL will set up 20,000 4G towers in 30,000 border villages at the cost of ₹26,000 crore rupees from the Universal Service Obligation Fund.
Vibrant Village Program (VVP) phase-1 has ₹4,800 crore (US$550 million), including ₹2,500 crore (US$290 million) for the roads alone, centrally sponsored scheme budget for the fy2022-23 to fy2025-26 3 year period to comprehensively develop 662 villages with a population of 142,000 on India-China border in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Ladakh.
Eventually the scheme will cover all 2,967 villages in 46 blocks of 19 border districts for the comprehensive development in the subsequent phases.
The district administrator will prepare the district and village level plans with the help of grampanchayats (elected Village council) in a "hub & spokes" based growth centers model by identifying natural & human resources to develop tourism & eco-agriculture, comprehensive infrastructure including electricity, communications, healthcare, roads, startups, social enterprises, youth and woman entered empowerment, etc to stop the outward migration.
[33] A NITI Aayog evaluation study for the period 2007-2011 and published in 2015 found that while the heads of Gram Panchayats (GPs) gave positive feedback related to BADP, and while people have benefitted in some ways, the requirement of border villages in Arunachal Pradesh were so great that they couldn't be met by BADP in one go:[34] ...of the 21 GPs surveyed, only six were connected by all-weather roads; electricity was available in only seven of them; tap water was available only in five; none of the GPs surveyed had fixed line telephones.
In January 2024, the central Ministry of Rural Development approved Rs 2,205 crores project to connect these 125 unconnected villages in Arunachal with 105 roads of total distance of 1,022 km.
The Bharat Ranbhoomi Darshan is an initiative of the Indian Military which will boost border tourism, patriotism, local infrastructure and economy while reversing civilian outward migration from these remote locations, it entails 77 battleground war memorials in border area including the Longewala War Memorial, Sadhewala War Memorial,[36] Tanot Mata, Siachen base camp, Kargil, Galwan, Pangong Tso, Rezang La, Doklam, Bum La, Cho La, Kibithu, etc.
