20 November 2006
India announces road-building plan
(PTI) India unveiled plans to develop 7,603km of road links in the country’s North East, with the government saying it was not to rival, but to strengthen links with neighbouring China. "We are planning to reach every place in this strategic region", Minister of State for Defence M Pallam Raju said after a meeting of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). The North East comprises eight states of the Indian Union: Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. China, as well as building a rail link to Lhasa, has recently built multi-laned highways right up to the Sino-Indian border. "It is not in response to China rapidly building rail and road infrastructure across the Himalayan heights in Tibet, but to strengthen ties with our neighbour", the minister said. He also said that the new plan envisages linking roads to the country's other neighbours Bhutan and Myanmar as well within seven insurgency-affected states in the heartland and in Jammu and Kashmir.