Work resumes on stalled project on Sino-Indian border

LEH: After being stalled due to threats from the Chinese side of Line of Actual Control, work on an irrigation project along the Indus river in the border town of Nyoma in north of Jammu and Kashmir has resumed with additional security cover provided by Indian forces.

"The work has begun again from September 23," Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Chief Executive Councillor Rigjin Spalbar told PTI today over phone from Mumbai.

The work could be started only after Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), a border guarding force along the Sino-Indian border, deployed additional strength in the remote border town, 170km from here. The work on the project continues daily between 8 AM and 5 PM.

The work was stalled here in the middle of August after armed Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA) personnel came up to the banks of Indus river and reportedly asked the contractor to stop the work on the irrigation project on the Kuyul-Gomba-Yardol-Thuksey Irrigation Scheme in the Nyoma Block.

Taken aback by the Chinese Army's attempts to interfere, LAHDC shot off letters to ITBP and Leh-based 14 Corps seeking protection for the contractors to complete the project that was started in 2006. The Kuyul-Gomba-Yardol-Thuksey irrigation scheme was sanctioned under Border Area Development Programme (BADP) in 2005-06 at a cost of Rs 63.80 lakh.

Under the scheme, water will be lifted from the river and released into a nearly 4-km long canal to provide irrigation facility and drinking water.

However, only 1.8 km of canal has been constructed till date.