Government sanctions 7 new ITBP battalions with a fresh strength of 9,400 personnel for deployment along Sino-India LAC

New Delhi, February 15

The government on Wednesday gave sanctions to create seven new battalions and an operational border base with a fresh strength of 9,400 personnel for the India-China LAC guarding force Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Anurag Thakur said.

The Minister, while briefing media on the decisions of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the fresh manpower will be deployed at 47 new border outposts and a dozen ‘staging camps’ or troops bases along the country’s northern frontier, where the forces of India and China are engaged in a standoff in Ladakh since 2020.

The induction of these new battalions and sector headquarters will be completed by 2025 at a cost of over Rs 1,800 crore, the Minister said.

The about 90,000 personnel strong ITBP was raised in the aftermath of the 1962 Chinese aggression and it is tasked to guard the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) on India’s eastern flank ranging from the Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh. Apart from this, the force also has important roles in many other internal security theatres, including Left Wing Extremism-affected Chhattisgarh.