Amid a border standoff with China in Ladakh, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday sanctioned seven new battalions and an operational border base with a strength of 9,400 personnel for the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), PTI reported. The ITBP guards the 3,488-km-long LAC on India's eastern border.
The proposal was cleared at a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The fresh manpower will be utilised for guarding 47 new border posts and a dozen "staging camps" or troops bases along the LAC frontier.
The about 90,000 personnel strong ITBP was raised in the aftermath of the 1962 Chinese aggression.
The development comes months after a violent faceoff between Indian and Chinese troops in Arunachal's Tawang left 35 Indian soldiers and 40 from the Chinese side injured. The clashes erupted after Chinese soldiers tried to transgress the LAC near Yangtse in Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh on December 9, 2022.
The eastern Ladakh border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area.
India and China held the 17th round of Corp Commanders meet on December 20, 2022, at the Chushul-Mondo border. In September that year, Indian and Chinese troops completed the disengagement process at Patrolling Point-15 in the Gogra-Hot Springs region of eastern Ladakh.
In 2021, the two sides completed the disengagement process on the north and south banks of Pangong lake.
Recently, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Manoj Pande said there has been a "slight increase" in the deployment of Chinese troops opposite the Army's Eastern Command even as the situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) remains "stable but unpredictable".
Pande also said China continues to deploy PLA soldiers and India has been able to match their strength along the border areas.
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With China ramping up infrastructure development along the border, the Army Chief said India was keeping a close watch.
In the last five years, 2,100 km of roads have been constructed by the BRO. Bridges are also being upgraded, tunnels are being created at Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, the Army Chief said. He said around Rs 1,300 crore has been spent on building this infrastructure, including habitat in eastern Ladakh.