Strategic importance of Darbuk-Shyokh-Daulat Beg Oldie (DSDBO)

Subject: Geography

Context:

During India-china confrontation along LAC, Darbuk-Shyokh-Daulat Beg Oldie (DSDBO) all-weather road often seen in news

Concept:

• The road’s strategic importance is that it connects Leh toDaulat Beg Oldie (DBO), virtually at the base of the Karakoram Pass that separates China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region from Ladakh.
• DBO is the northernmost corner of Indian territory in Ladakh
• DBO has the world’s highest airstrip, originally built during the 1962 war but abandoned until 2008.

• The DSDBO highway provides the Indian military access to the section of theTibet-Xinjaing highway that passes through Aksai Chin. DBO itself is less than 10 km west of the LAC at Aksai Chin.
• To the west of DBO is the region where China abuts Pakistan in the Gilgit-Baltistan area, once a part of the erstwhile Kashmir principality. This is also the critical region where China is currently constructing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), to which India has objected.