Just hours ahead of the seventh round of military talks between India and China aimed at defusing tensions along the Line of Actual Control, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has inaugurated 44 bridges in border states and union territories.

The bridges inaugurated by the Defence Minister have been built by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), an agency responsible for the construction and upkeep of strategic roads and bridges in India’s border areas.

Of the 44 bridges inaugurated earlier today, 10 are in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, 8 in the Union Territory of Ladakh, 2 in Himachal Pradesh, 4 in Punjab, 8 in Uttarakhand and 4 in Sikkim.

This development comes at a time when India has refused to stop the development of infrastructure in areas on its side of the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

Experts said the inauguration of the bridges in border areas, including 8 in Ladakh, was done ahead of the military talks as it may have been aimed at sending a message to Beijing and the People’s Liberation Army.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the Rohtang Tunnel, the longest tunnel in the world at an elevation above 10,000 feet. The new tunnel will make the movement of troops and equipment to Ladakh easier.

Work on border roads in Ladakh continues at full pace amid tensions.

Renovation work on the Durbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie (DS-DBO) road, which is critical for connectivity to north-eastern Ladakh — called sub-sector north by the Army, is likely to be complete by the end of October.

“The black topping of the DBO road will be completed by the end of this month,” a report in India Today quotes Lieutenant General Harpal Singh, Director General of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), the agency responsible for the construction and maintenance of roads along India’s borders, as saying.