The India Army has treated 53,082 flood victims in Jammu and Kashmir, where 80 medical teams of the Armed Forces Medical Services are already operating in full swing.
The Border Roads Organisation is due to commission a cable stayed bridge, over river Ravi in Basholi area of Jammu and Kashmir next year.
During the visit, she reviewed the security situation in the border region and inaugurated a bridge that will link Leh to Karakoram, providing connectivity on the strategically important Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Olde axis for military transport.
The road network will stretch from Gujarat to Mizoram.
The 300-km long Jammu-Srinagar National Highway continued to remain closed for traffic for the fifth consecutive day on Sunday due to landslides triggered by heavy rains, leaving over 700 Kashmir-bound trucks and light passenger vehicles stranded.
About 10 inches of snow had accumulated on ground around Jawahar Tunnel areas, but the real problem is continuous landslides and shooting of stones triggered by incessant rains in Ramban sector which is hampering the efforts of early restoration of the highway.
A team of six trekkers from New Delhi and Shimla is missing in Kinnaur district, officials said. A rescue operation will be launched.
Faced with an onslaught of unsavoury messages on social media, some purportedly written by retired and serving personnel, the army on Thursday turned to Facebook to caution them against accepting or forwarding messages without verifying facts.
The step has been taken to boost tourism in Ladakh and give people a window to appreciate the tough work done by Army jawans and engineers in extreme weather and inhospitable terrains, he said.
The Srinagar-Leh National Highway connecting Ladakh with Kashmir Valley was reopened for traffic on Tuesday after remaining closed for seven days due to heavy rains, boosting connectivity to the flood-hit region awaiting crucial supplies.
The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday put the number of missing people in last month's tragedy at 5,360 and announced that pilgrimage to Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines will resume by September 30 even as fresh rains pounded several parts of the state and claimed 11 lives.
'Above 2,000 metres the gradient of the Himalayas is very steep and if you build any infrastructure (roads, dams, hydro power projects) in these regions, it will not be able to sustain these events (the onslaught of debris that comes down with great speeds).'
The state and Indian Air Force choppers on Saturday rescued 100 persons, including 16 foreigners, from Kaza and various parts of rain ravaged tribal district of Kinnaur even as the recovery of 10 bodies took the death toll to 24.
'These combat engineer units are used in war for building bridges for advancing troops.' 'Instead of training by building bridges over the Mula and Mutha rivers in Pune, they will practice by building bridges in Mumbai,' Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat tells Ajai Shukla.
'It is nobody's contention that uncomfortable questions regarding national security should not be raised. But that is a topic for another day and another time when the immediate threat has faded,' argues Vivek Gumaste.
In all the noise surrounding the Dok La confrontation, Claude Arpi focuses on a crucial issue that has hardly been covered -- the construction of roads for the armed forces and the local population to reach the most remote border posts.
At least 50 major landslides occurred in just four road stretches in calamity-torn Uttarakhand, where hundreds of pilgrims are feared to have perished in flash floods, an official said.
Before undertaking such difficult projects as a 378-km railway line to Tawang, the government must seriously examine whether having quality roads is a better option.
The thrust will be on improving connectivity in economic corridors and remote and border areas with a view to hike trade and enable faster movement of cargo.
'It is important to make a clear distinction between the officers and jawans. The officers retire at 54 and with two extensions can go up to 58 years before they go home. A jawan on the other hand retires at 38. Therefore, to portray a picture that all army men retire young is wrong.'
Kashmir remained cut-off from the rest of the country for the second day on Thursday with road and air links to the Valley snapped due to snowfall, the heaviest in a decade in the month of January.
Some organisational changes are likely in some of the key army formations.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Friday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sought an immediate relief of Rs 1,000 crore for restoration works in the flood-affected areas of the state.
Restoration of road and tele-communication network in the Kashmir Valley, ravaged by floods, will take three to five days. The Centre has directed free flow of transport via Manali and Leh to Srinagar, the only available surface network, a top central government official said on Monday.
So far, the Central Sector has never seen active hostilities, remaining peaceful even through the 1962 war. A reason for the Central Sector having remained peaceful is the towering Himalayan watershed that defines the border.
'The lush green of Kashmir was exactly like the postcards and posters I had seen growing up.'
The CAG had taken a strong objection to the long delays by the BRO in constructing 61 strategically important roads.
Read Prime Minister Manmohan Singh statement after he visited Uttarakhand on Wednesday
Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting that the situation in Uttarakhand is better than what it was on Tuesday and Food Minister K V Thomas is taking steps to rush more food grains to the flood-hit Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
'This is the only place on earth where Elephas maximus climbs to these heights.'
Showering his praise on the armed forces guarding the nation, Prime Minister Modi earlier on Sunday dedicated this year's Diwali to the jawans.
Strategically important and first of the kind in North India and Jammu and Kashmir, the 592-meter long Basohli Bridge over River Ravi will be fourth of its kind in the country
Assessing the unprecedented destruction at rain-ravaged Uttarakhand, including 110 major landslides in small stretches, the Border Roads Organisation has taken a massive road rehabilitation programme in the state, pressing into service about 4,000 men.
In a boost to relief efforts in the flood-ravaged Kashmir Valley, the Jammu-Sringar National Highway on Tuesday reopened for traffic after remaining closed for 13 days due to landslides triggered by incessant rains.
Over 1,42,000 people have been rescued from the flood-ravaged parts of Jammu and Kashmir so far, as the relief operations launched by the Armed forces entered the 12th day on Saturday.
Water levels have started receding in Srinagar and telecommunication has been restored in parts of the city after it faced the worst floods in decades.
The 7th CPC places the Indian Police Service (and, almost in passing, the Indian Forest Service) on a level with the Indian Administrative Service, leaving the military out in the cold.
'India's military posture has become significantly stronger than China's on the 3,500-kilometre Line of Actual Control.' 'This is enhancing confrontation between the two sides,' points out Ajai Shukla.
The military will now demand further pay and promotion parity with civilians
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