China to deploy 3 more radars in Tibet along India border

Beijing: China will soon deploy three more unmanned radars in Tibet in addition to the one stationed there for the past eight years to strengthen air surveillance in the Himalayan region along the border with India.

China's first unattended radar station has stood for eight years on top of Ganbala Mountain. This year another three unattended radars are going to be installed in order to form a radar network with the previous ones, state-run People's Daily reported.

China completed construction of Ganbala radar station in 1965, which is the highest manned radar station in the world at a height of 5,374 metres above sea level.

The percentage of oxygen in the air on Ganbala Mountain, located not far from Sikkim and Bhutan borders, is only 48 per cent of that at sea level. That is why the mountain is viewed as a "life forbidding zone".

The report has not mentioned whether the manned radar station is replaced by the new unmanned ones.

For over 40 years, this radar station has been used to secure surveillance and provide civilian air navigation services in Tibet, the report said.