anant_s
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On the western borders, in diverse terrain, on the northern borders, counting three sectors at least?
Specifically in considering a defence of Arunachal?
Sir, i'm not privy to policy matters, but there is one notion that our government held for years. After 1962, the very thought of putting any kind of infra structure (be it railways, all weather roads, high capacity bridges) were seen with a very negative angle. It was thought (a very rotten mindset) that in case of another Chinese confrontation, the troops could use this very infra structure to move quickly inside India.
What this meant that now even after half a century later, though no war came, but people in NE states suffered on account of poor connectivity. Industries didn't develop and educated youth had to move out of their states in search of jobs. Agriculture sector (specifically produce farming) too, which had great potential in area didnot prosper enough.
All this led to a situation where a forward looking decision of putting a rail line, could have made a huge difference to lives of people, myopic vision led to regression.
Project Unigauage (conversion of all meter gauge network to Broad gauge) too didn't bother much about east.
However some of this is changing now. Government seems to serious in connecting all state capitals of NE states with a BG network and in this regard, Tripura, Manipur and Arunanchal Pradesh have direct connectivity with main land network, electrification will follow soon.
Certain border areas are highly challenging from engineering point of view (That Desert, Rann of Kutch, Lower Himalayas) but here again, new methods of construction (such as New Austrian tunnel boring) is now allowing faster and safer construction of rail infra-structure possible. More cities in J&K are getting connected to mainline network.
I suppose one lesson that everyone else should learn from is Chinese Tibet Railway project. By all strech of imagination, Lhasa line is the greatest civil engineering project in a century where engineers braved all odds to comeup with mind boggling solution to conquer a terrain, where others would have accepted defeat. but now that it has been done, we know the kind of strategic and economic benefit that line brings.
Connecting far off lands is a costly and challenging exercise, but sometimes larger picture and future needs to be kept in mind. imho, connecting people and not isolating them is the way to earn their respect.
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Developments in NE States
@Tshering22 Sir, you may want to say more on this issue!
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