India says it has doubled budget for roads and bridges on China border

On 15 September, the defence minister said that India has doubled the budget for vital roads and bridges along the unspecified border with China in recent years in response to Beijing’s quick infrastructure growth on the other side. Troops of the two countries are in the middle of their most serious confrontations for years along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) or informal border in the western Himalayas, raising fears of a broader conflict. One of the reasons for the conflict has been India’s recent construction of roads and airfields near the border in the Ladakh region bordering Tibet, the Chinese side has said.