Border tensions have silver lining for remote, once-ignored regions

Although neither China nor India wants a repeat of the 1962 conflict between them, each side is wary enough of the other to see the need to make its military presence felt, even as they try to solidify the political ties between them.

The mutual militarisation along their shared border, though, has had a curious result: remote areas long ignored by their respective governments are getting attention they've never had before.

The result is that the build-up of infrastructure has opened an economic door, even to the extent of cross-border trade - at least on the local level.

New Delhi has been constructing strategic highways and railways in response to China's rapid expansion of defence installations along their disputed border - along with the infrastructure to reach them - over the past two decades.

But Beijing insists the new transportation networks are completely civil in nature. It maintains that improving the infrastructure is just part of its effort to boost trade and economic development along its border with India in the remote Himalayan region.

But the Indian Defence Ministry sees another angle, saying the more than 58,000 kilometres of road-rail links on the Tibetan Plateau could help the People's Liberation Army mobilise up to 30,000 soldiers at the border in just 20 days, compared with the 90-odd days that would have been needed before.