J&K: Over 1,600 Jharkhand labourers sent to Ladakh for expediting road projects near LAC
In the days to come, more such trains will be reaching Udhampur with nearly 10,000 labourers, who will then be ferried to Ladakh by road, sources said.
Amid the ongoing India-China standoff, around 1,600 labourers, who arrived at Udhampur in a train from Jharkhand on Monday, were sent to Ladakh to ramp up the border roads and allied projects along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
A senior official from the administration revealed that a train from Jharkhand with around 1,600 labourers on board reached Udhampur railway station at 3.15am on Monday.
“They were screened and sampled before being ferried to Ladakh in a fleet of buses while adhering to Covid-19 guidelines,” he said.
Sources said that the labourers were being taken to Ladakh to speed up the road projects and allied works of the BRO in eastern Ladakh where India and China are engaged in a border dispute.
On June 13, a special train with around 1,648 workers from Jharkhand was flagged off by chief minister Hemant Soren from Dumka. When they reach Ladakh, they would have travelled over 2,500 km.
In the days to come, more such trains will be reaching Udhampur with nearly 10,000 labourers, who will then be ferried to Ladakh by road, sources said.
India and China are holding talks at the Brigade Commander and Battalion Commander level in eastern Ladakh in Galwan valley area and Hot Springs.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday had said China also wanted to resolve the issue through military and diplomatic-level talks and that India is not a weak nation anymore.