Multiple news reports quoting unnamed intelligence sources suggest that a ground assessment by the security establishment has pointed out that the Chinese army is building a second bridge on the Pangong Lake in eastern Ladakh.
The People’s Liberation Army had constructed the first one in January this year.
An unnamed security official attached to the Union home ministry told The Telegraph that the latest ground assessment has revealed increased infrastructure activity by China along the Line of Actual Control, including the construction of a second bridge on the Pangong Lake.
Sources told the newspaper that China was also ramping up its infrastructure within India-claimed lines on the strategic Depsang Plains and elsewhere, building roads and settlements for its troops.
Corroboration of the claims about a second bridge came from Damien Symon, a geospatial intelligence researcher at the Intel Lab, and Ladakh councillor Konchok Stanzin who on on Wednesday tweeted satellite images of what he said was the under-development second bridge.
In January, satellite images had suggested that the Chinese army was building an eight-metre-wide bridge within India-claimed lines over the Pangong Lake, which security experts had said would give China “a strategic edge”.