Rajnath Singh visits ITBP battalion HQ in Uttarkashi’s Matli, to clebrate New Year with troops.

This is Singh’s second visit to the Sino-Indian border area in Uttarakhand after his four-day tour of the region in September 2017. It was one of the firsts by a senior minister in the Narendra Modi-led government to China border after the resolution of the stand-off in Dokalam.

Singh will celebrate the New Year on Monday with ITBP personnel at Nelong Border Outpost (BoP) situated at the height of 11,700 feet. The border outpost is in Nelong valley which is surrounded by high mountains and where the temperature dips upto minus 15 degrees celsius.

The Dokalam standoff began on June 16, 2017, after the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) began building a road in the area claimed by Bhutan.

The standoff ended on August 28, 2017, following a mutual agreement under which China stopped the construction of the road and India withdrew its troops.

The about 90,000-personnel strong ITBP is tasked with guarding the 3,488 km long Sino-India border that stretches through Jammu and Kashmir (1,597 km), Himachal Pradesh (200 km), Uttarakhand (345 km), Sikkim (220 km) and Arunachal Pradesh (1,126 km).