Not just the fast-tracked road infrastructure to connect to difficult border areas of Arunachal Pradesh besides the setting up of helipads, heliports and advanced landing grounds for military purposes, a plan to dig a tunnel under the Brahmaputra river in Assam is being pursued vigorously, THE WEEK has learnt.
The 15-km-long tunnel plan that will comprise a road and rail component, besides a third stretch that will be used for movement of military personnel and equipment is on, a senior government official said.
“The defence and rail ministries are being consulted regularly on the tunnel plan underneath the Brahmaputra river and the project is expected to take off soon. The plan was appraised in a very recent meeting in Guwahati,” the official said.
While the final details are being worked upon, the tunnel is expected to connect the north and south banks of the Brahmaputra from Numaligarh in the river’s south bank with Gohpur in the north and is expected to be ready in about 5-6 years.
Gohpur lies on the way to many forward areas of Arunachal Pradesh which is the biggest state in the Northeast region and shares a 1,126-km-long border with the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
China claims territorial suzerainty over most of Arunachal Pradesh and calls it ‘Southern Tibet’.
While India has positioned an entire array of potent conventional and nuclear-capable missile systems in locations across the south bank of the Brahmaputra, an acute need was felt to be able to transport the military personnel and equipment undetected as the existing bridges are very viable targets in times of war.
The planned tunnel connectivity will ensure both easy mobility and cover of the military equipment and platforms.
According to open-source information, the military bases in Assam maintain the nuclear-capable Agni 2, Agni 3 and Brahmos missile systems.
While the medium-range ballistic missile Agni 2 has an operational range of up to 3,500 km, the intermediate-range Agni 3 has a range of up to 5,000 km. The Brahmos is a cruise missile with a 300 km range which has been successfully tested for an enhanced range of 500 km. All three can be launched from a variety of mobile platforms including from road and rail.
On the other hand, China is believed to have positioned at least 104 nuclear-capable missiles—including the Dong-Feng 21 and the Dong-Feng 31—that can target the entire stretch of India.
DF 21 has a range of about 2,000 km while the DF 31 has two variants—DF 31 has a range of 7,000 km while the DF 31A has a range of up to 11,000 km.
The main India-centric PLA strategic bases are in Korla, Xinjiang (Base 56), in Jianshui (Base 53) in Yunnan Province and Liuqingkou (Base 56) in Qinghai Province.