New Delhi: With China adopting an aggressive stance on land and sea, India plans to fast-track its strategy basing additional military forces in the strategically located Andaman & Nicobar archipelago, along with the requisite development of infrastructure, to counter former’s expanding strategic presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

The long-pending plans for “force accretion” and “military infrastructure development” at the A&N Islands have “gained a sense of urgency” with China’s aggressive and expansionist moves both along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control as well as the IOR.

The Andaman Nicobar Command (ANC) was set up in 2001 as the country’s first — and till now the only — “theatre” command with all land, sea and air forces under one operational commander. But it has for long suffered from general apathy, fund crunches, lack of environmental clearances to build infrastructure and, of course, crippling turf wars among the three services.