The Pulse | Security | South Asia

India Upgrades Military Infrastructure in the Northeast on War Footing

External threats have prompted India’s enhanced military presence and upgradation of infrastructure along the Siliguri Corridor and in the Northeast.

The Indian government has gone into overdrive to fortify the Siliguri Corridor (aka the Chicken’s Neck) and the contiguous northeastern region that borders four countries.

The Siliguri Corridor is a 22-km-wide sliver of territory in West Bengal, connecting the northeastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim to the rest of India. The narrow strip has Nepal and Bhutan to its north, Bangladesh to its south and also lies in close proximity to China.

All land trade between the northeastern states and the rest of India passes through the Chicken’s Neck, and any blockade of this narrow corridor will sever India’s restive and economically underdeveloped Northeast from the rest of the country.

This also explains why the Indian government has been seriously exploring options to provide an alternate outlet for the landlocked region through Bangladesh and Myanmar.

China has claimed 90,000 square km of land in India’s Northeast. In 1962, Chinese troops invaded Arunachal Pradesh in a brief month-long war. In 1986, the two countries again clashed at the Somdorong Chu valley in Arunachal, which dragged on for several months.

The Indian government’s recent decision to strengthen its defenses at the Siliguri Corridor appears to have been prompted by a series of developments in China and Bangladesh in recent years. One was the India-China military standoff at Doklam in the summer of 2017, when Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a two-month stand-off following an increased Chinese military presence in Doklam or Donglang. China had erected helipads and trenches in the region, which lies in the trijunction between India, Bhutan and China.

Then the pro-India Awami League government in Bangladesh was ousted in August 2024 and was replaced by an interim administration under Muhammad Yunus, whose foreign policy tilted toward China and Pakistan. In addition to overtures to draw Chinese investments into Bangladesh, the Yunus administration was reported to be renovating an old airfield at Lalmonirhat in the country near India’s Chicken’s Neck. It raised India’s concerns about the security of the strategically vital corridor.

These developments prompted New Delhi to approve projects to secure the Siliguri Corridor.

Topping the list in terms of strategic importance among the recently approved projects is the country’s first underwater twin-tube road-cum-rail tunnel project that will be built under the Brahmaputra river in Assam. The 33.7-km-long, four-lane, access-controlled project will include a 15.79-km twin-tube tunnel under the Brahmaputra and will connect Gohpur on the river’s north bank with Numaligarh on the south bank.

The project is expected to augment the efficiency of........

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