Ministry of defence to spend Rs60,000 crore on military infrastructure
14 Dec 2011
New Delhi: India will spend upwards of Rs60,000 crore over the next five years on developing military infrastructure and capabilities for the western and eastern fronts. The figure was supplied by defence minister AK Antony to the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The planned development of military infrastructure includes new fighter bases, helipads, bunkers, forward ammunition dumps and other related facilities.
The planned development of army infrastructure and improvement of IAF infrastructure in the north-east by the Military Engineer Services (MES) has been pegged at Rs7,374 crore and Rs1,753 crore, respectively.
'Capability' development along the northern borders will cost Rs24,312 crore, while upgrade of storage facility for ammunition will come for Rs18,450 crore.
Construction of shelters designed for high-altitude areas like Kargil, Siachen and Ladakh, including insulation, dome and fibre-glass based shelters, will cost another Rs6,000 crore.
Infrastructure development by the eastern army command will include 5,572 'permanent defences and bunkers'' along the Line of Actual Control with China as well as helicopter and drone bases at Missamari, Kumbhigram and Lilabari in Assam.
This is in addition to IAF deploying Sukhoi-30MKI fighters in Tezpur and Chabua as well as upgrade of ALGs (advanced landing grounds) in Arunachal and eastern Ladakh.