Shillong, May 21: Indian Air Force has been developing infrastructure in a big way in east and north-east India to match "developments across the border, especially China," Air officer commanding-in-chief of Eastern Air Command (EAC), Air Marshal SK Bhan said here on Wednesday.
Air Marshal Bhan downplayed reports of Chinese incursion and territorial claims on Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
"We are gearing up by building modern infrastructure and deploying latest machines to match the developments across the border, especially in China. We got to be ready for any future confrontation," Air Marshal Bhan told a press conference.
Refusing to use the word "threat" from neighbouring country, he said recent reports of Chinese claims in the northeast were "blown out of proportion".
"On the ground, there is no serious threat as such," Air Marshal said.
"At times forces of both the countries tend to cross each other's boundary as it is not well demarcated," he pointed out, contending that such incidents were "not an issue".
However, the top IAF officer in EAC said as part of the IAF'S uplift, Multi-Role Sukhoi-30MKIs would be deployed in the region to match massive build-up along borderline in Tibet by the Chinese.
The first batch of two squadrons of the aircraft will be deployed at Tezpur Air Base by March next year, while a few more would be brought by the end of 2009.
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