India–China Border Roads

India–China Border Roads (ICBRs, ICB Roads) is a Government of India project for developing infrastructure along the Sino-Indian border by constructing strategic roads, including bridges and tunnels. The ICBR project is largely in response to Chinese infrastructure development along the borderlands with India. Several entities are responsible for constructing ICBR, including Border Roads Organisation (BRO) which handles the bulk of the ICBR road construction work, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MoDNER), Central Public Works Department (CPWD), public works departments of respective states and others. At least 67 per cent of the road network assigned to BRO falls under ICBR.

Three phases of ICBR roads have been approved entailing 177 roads of over 10,023 km (6,228 mi) total length along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China under the "Border Infrastructure and Management Fund" (BIMF) of Ministry of Home Affairs, including 73 roads of 3,323 km (2,065 mi) length under Phase-I and Phase-II approved since 2005 and additional 104 roads of more than 6,700 km (4,200 mi) length under ICBR-III approved in 2020. As of August 2024, the work on Phase-III had commenced, and the Phase-I and Phase-II were complete except some residual work from Phase-II. ICBR covers construction of several roads, 18 feet wide foot tracks and border out posts (BoPs) connecting several LAC patrol points (PP) and Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) points. For example, in 2021 India was building 57 roads, 32 helipads, 47 BoPs, 12 staging camps for ITBP and many 18 ft tracks in Arunachal Pradesh under various ICBR phases.

India has set up an inter-departmental "Empowered Committee" (EC) headed by the Ministry of Defence to expedite the issue resolution and timely completion of ICBR infrastructure after the delay in forest/wildlife clearance and land acquisition, rugged terrain, limited working season due to winter and rains, scarcity of construction material, etc. resulted in the missed deadlines in the past. Some of the important already completed projects include the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie Road (DS-DBO) and Atal Tunnel under Rohtang Pass; and the under-construction important projects include the Sela Tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh and a road-cum-rail tunnel under the Brahmaputra River in Assam.