New Delhi:’s Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the Centre has undertaken a special project to connect all the border posts along the Sino-India frontier with roads.

Singh disclosed about it while addressing the ITBP jawans and officers at a forward ITBP unit in Uttarakhand’sNelong Valley. 

He also reviewed the operational preparedness of the ITBP unit.

 Singh ringed in the New Year with the troops of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at this border post located at a height of 11,614 feet in Uttarakhand.

This was the first time a home minister or a senior Union minister paid a visit to this border post.

The home minister also instructed the ITBP personnel, in the presence of the force's Director General (DG), R K Pachnanda, to find out ways to rotate the troops at such high-altitude posts in less than three months' time.

Currently, the troops are rotated every three months.

This would enhance the operational efficiency of the personnel and also reduce the instances of mountain-related sickness among them, he said.

"A project is underway to connect all the border outposts along the Sino-India border with roads," Singh said.
 He said that while a number of border posts had already been connected with roads, many more would be linked soon.

"I have come here to see the conditions in which the ITBP jawans are guarding the Sino-India border," the minister said.

Wishing the personnel of the border guarding force a happy new year, Singh talked about his idea of reducing the current three months' time of rotating the troops at such arduous and tough posts.

"I will urge the ITBP to find ways and see how can we reduce the time period of deployment of troops, from three months to the least possible, as a lot of time is also spent on commuting to and from such hard areas," he said.