Inside India's 'Himalayan push' to be future-ready along China border: 'A dramatic shift in thinking'

In a major infrastructure push across the Himalayas, India is building roads, tunnels and airstrips to strengthen its military posture along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China since the deadly 2020 clash exposed serious logistical gaps, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The 2020 standoff, which killed soldiers on both sides, exposed logistical difficulties for India while moving reinforcements and supplies across its own mountainous frontier.

Analysts told WSJ that while China could rush troops to the area in hours using an extensive network of border roads and railways, India would have needed up to a week due to rough terrain and limited connectivity.

“It was a dramatic shift in thinking ... we realized we needed to change our total approach," WSJ quoted Major General Amrit Pal Singh, former chief of operational logistics in Ladakh, as saying.

Among the most ambitious projects is the Zojila tunnel in northern India, being built at around 11,500 feet.

Work on the more than $750 million tunnel began months after the 2020 clash.

Once completed, the tunnel is expected to reduce travel time and ensure year-round access to Ladakh, which often remains cut off due to heavy snowfall for up to six months, the report said.

However, supplying high-altitude posts remains a punishing task.

Trucks and trains move essentials to depots in Jammu and Kashmir, from where convoys head to Leh. Beyond that, smaller vehicles traverse broken terrain, and the final stretch — at heights nearing 20,000 feet — is often carried by porters and mules.

“It’s a massive, massive logistical exercise undertaken regularly every year,” Lt. Gen. Deependra Singh Hooda, former Northern Command chief, told WSJ.

He added that each soldier needs about 220 pounds of supplies every month, while a small outpost can burn roughly 13 gallons of fuel a day. “That has to be brought up to that post on somebody’s shoulder."

India has also expanded air connectivity. According to WSJ, New Delhi has built over 30 helipads and upgraded or built several airstrips along the border. A key addition is the Mudh-Nyoma airbase in Ladakh, at nearly 14,000 feet and just 19 miles from the Chinese border, capable of handling heavier transport aircraft such as the C-130J.

Daniel Markey, senior fellow at the Stimson Center, told WSJ that India had almost "rolled out the red carpet" to a Chinese invasion since the earler perspective was that building significant roads was actually militarily detrimental to the country.

However, the thinking began shifting in the mid-2000s as China rapidly built road and rail networks to strengthen Tibet and Xinjiang.

The push is not without risks. Analysts told WSJ that heightened infrastructure and patrol activity could increase the chances of friction, especially in disputed zones like Pangong Tso, where both armies maintain a presence despite a disengagement agreement.

Still, Indian officials see the build-up as deterrence rather than a race with China. “We’re not going overboard,” WSJ quoted Singh as saying.