By Zarak Khan | 2025-08-22

China's accelerated military and infrastructure expansion along the eastern Ladakh frontier has emerged as a decisive driver of India's strategic planning.

India's neighbor is building up its positions alongside eastern Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh, the Times of India reported in January.

New Delhi correspondingly is expediting the modernization of the Darbuk–Shyok–Daulat Beg Oldie (DS-DBO) road, a critical logistical artery for high-altitude military operations.

The 255km-long DS-DBO road connects Leh to the Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) airstrip, one of the highest military airfields in the world at over 4,877 meters. Traversing the rugged Karakoram range at elevations between 3,962 and 5,065 meters, the route cuts a two-day trip to 11–12 hours.

This upgrade transforms the strategic calculus in eastern Ladakh, where access and mobility have long been constrained by extreme terrain and weather conditions.

The Indian Border Roads Organization, an arm of the Defense Ministry, completed the road in 2019 after almost two decades of work. It is now reinforcing the route and its 37 bridges to Class 70 standards, enabling the transport of 70-ton armored vehicles, tanks and missile carriers.

Completion of the upgrades will dramatically enhance India's high-altitude military mobility, the Tribune of India reported July 21, citing Indian government sources.

It did not report when workers will finish the Class 70 upgrade.

In parallel, India is constructing a 130km-long alternate route from Sasoma through Saser La, Saser Brangsa and Gapshan to DBO, the Times of India reported July 21. This alignment, designed to deny direct visibility to Chinese patrols, reduces reliance on the existing road and offers more operational security, the report added.

The new route will give Indian forces another communication line and facilitate faster movement of troops and arms.

Completion is expected in November 2026, according to the Indian Express.

Strategic value

The move is widely seen as part of India's broader response to Beijing's rapidly expanding border infrastructure. It comes amid a fragile yet unresolved de-escalation agreement reached last October after years of standoff.

For India, the DS-DBO road is not just a supply line; it is the only land link to the Galwan Valley and the DBO outpost.

Both locations became flashpoints during the June 2020 border clashes with China, followed by persistent incursions by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) at multiple sites in Ladakh. The confrontation resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian and 4 Chinese soldiers, marking the first shots fired since 1975 along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a de facto and uneasily maintained boundary separating the two rivals.

The October agreement notwithstanding, large numbers of troops remain deployed along the frontier, according to Tasleem Ahmed, a researcher in Srinagar who studies Sino-Indian tension.

"The DS-DBO road allows the Indian army to move troops and heavy equipment to the border far more quickly in case of renewed tensions with China," Ahmed told Focus in an interview.

Since 2014, India has adopted a more "assertive posturing" aimed at "interdicting" Chinese troop movements, the Jamestown Foundation said in 2020.

Infrastructure projects such as the DS-DBO road have "enhanced India's capacity to defend its territory," but also, "worryingly for China, to carry out offensive operations," Jamestown added.

"In the past, Indian forces relied on dropping supplies via helicopter to soldiers deployed near the LAC," it said. "However, they are now able to ferry troops, and even tanks, by C-17 Globemasters and C-130 Super Hercules aircraft to landing strips at DBO and other places."

Worries for China

The DS-DBO upgrade, undertaken despite Chinese resistance and the extreme terrain, has caused unease within the PLA, say analysts.

Improved Indian mobility may embolden New Delhi to engage in riskier forward deployments or rapid counter-moves in disputed sectors, say Chinese military commentators, who largely echo the Chinese Communist Party.

India's "enhanced infrastructure capabilities may lead to risky provocations in border areas," He Xianqing, a researcher at China's National Institute for South China Sea Studies, told the South China Morning Post in August.