Chinese bridge over Pangong Tso indicates growing PLA threat to East Ladakh

The construction of a double-span bridge connecting the north and south banks of Pangong Tso by the Chinese Army in the Khurnak Fort area, occupied by the PLA in 1959, is part of the frantic military infrastructure upgradation carried out by Beijing across the 3488 km Line of Actual Control with India. Although the fresh bridge construction is beyond India’s black LAC claim line and within Chinese Green claim, the double span link will increase the PLA capacity to deploy on both banks of the saltwater lake with the road loop to military base at Rudog being reduced to a direct link. While the opposition Congress is trying to score political points against the Modi government over the fresh bridge construction, the PLA had over-run the entire north banks of Pangong Tso on October 22, 1962, after the three Indian Army posts at Srijap complex, west of the new bridge and east of finger eight, were attacked by the Red Army a day before as a military response to PM Jawahar Lal Nehru's forward policy. The potential threat that the PLA poses to Indian Army with its constant border nibbling tactics gets amplified with the possibility of defence hardware supply lines from Moscow to India getting disrupted with President Vladimir Putin focused on Ukraine war and Europe.