The Centre has undertaken a special project to connect all the border posts along the Sino-India frontier with roads, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today as he reviewed the operational preparedness of a forward ITBP unit here. Singh ringed in the new year with the troops of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at this border post located at a height of 11,614 feet in Uttarakhand, where the mercury dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius today. This was the first time a home minister or a senior Union minister paid a visit to this border post.
The home minister also instructed the ITBP personnel, in the presence of the force’s Director General (DG), R K Pachnanda, to find out ways to rotate the troops at such high-altitude posts in less than three months’ time. Currently, the troops are rotated every three months.
This would enhance the operational efficiency of the personnel and also reduce the instances of mountain-related sickness among them, he said.
“A project is underway to connect all the border outposts along the Sino-India border with roads,” Singh said, addressing the ITBP personnel and officers.
He added that while a number of border posts had already been connected with roads, many more would be linked soon.