India upgrading 255-km key Ladakh road to counter China

Countering China’s rapid infrastructure growth, India is upgrading a strategically vital 255-km road in Eastern Ladakh to enable the movement of very heavy vehicles, including tanks and specialised trucks capable of carrying long-range missiles. The existing Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie (DS-DBO) road, which links Leh with DBO on a 16,600-foot-high plateau, is undergoing an upgrade, sources said.

The entire route, which runs through a desolate and treeless stretch of the Karakoram mountain range, will be strengthened to ‘class 70’ specifications, meaning the road and all 37 bridges along it will be able to support vehicles weighing up to 70 tonnes. This includes Army tank carriers and missile-transporting trucks.

The DS-DBO road is the only land access to the Galwan Valley, the site of the bloody India-China clash in June 2020. North of DBO lies the Karakoram Pass, which separates Ladakh from China’s Xinjiang region, while the strategically important Depsang Plains — where India and China were locked in a military standoff from May 2020 to October 2024 — lie to the east of DBO. The area north of Shyok is referred to as the “sub sector north” (SSN) by the Army.

The Indian military has factored in a scenario where China’s People’s Liberation Army could push westward into the 16,000-foot-high Depsang Plains and threaten a section of the DS-DBO road, potentially cutting off access to DBO and, by extension, the Karakoram Pass. Indian defensive positions in the SSN are designed to hold back any such thrust by the PLA. Since May 2020, thousands of troops from both sides have been stationed along their respective sides of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Holding onto the SSN is considered vital, making the DS-DBO road a crucial logistical link.

To reduce dependence on a single route, an alternative Leh-Saser La-Murgo-DBO axis is being developed and is expected to be ready by next year. This alignment is not visible to Chinese Army ground patrols near the LAC.

The Border Roads Organisation is constructing a 4-km-long concrete stretch near Saser La, a 17,800-foot-high pass in the Karakoram. This section will form part of a 56-km military-grade road connecting Sasoma, Saser La and Murgo, where it will merge with the existing DS-DBO route.

A dirt track on the Sasoma-Murgo route was activated in August 2020 during the peak of the India-China military standoff. Since then, the BRO has been working to widen it. In 2022, the National Board for Wildlife cleared the passage of this road through 55 hectares of the Karakoram Wildlife Sanctuary.

India