LG Saxena launches Ladakh’s first model border village on India-China frontier

For the 91 residents of Chumur, a remote village tucked away in Ladakh’s high-altitude near the India-China border, a new chapter began with the launch of the Union Territory’s first Model Border Village project. The initiative promises climate-resilient homes, tourism-linked livelihoods, modern amenities and year-round connectivity in a bid to reverse migration and make border communities more sustainable.

Lt. Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena yesterday laid the foundation stone for the first Model Border Village at Chumur under the Government of India’s ambitious Vibrant Village Programme (VVP).

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Perched at an altitude of 16,700 feet along the Indo-China Border, Chumur houses 24 households with a population of 91 people engaged in Pashmina rearing and production.

This project will script a new chapter in the development journey of Ladakh, aligned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of strong, self-reliant border villages. Beginning with Chumur, 10 such border villages will be developed as Model Border Villages in the first phase of VVP.

This project, the first of its kind in Ladakh and among the pioneering model border villages in India, will focus on four key pillars of development – infrastructure, employment and livelihood creation, all-weather functionality, and civilian–defence integration. The project was conceived to develop Chumur as a self-reliant, climate-resilient, tourism-enabled and economically vibrant border settlement.

Under the programme, families in these villages will be provided with climate-resilient, south-facing passive solar houses, designed to maximise solar heat gain and protect them from harsh winters, when temperatures drop to -35 degrees during peak winter months. Each household will receive a residential unit with an attached bathroom, an additional room suitable for homestay activities, a kitchen garden space, livestock sheds and dedicated fodder storage facilities. These houses are expected to be completed by September this year, subject to weather conditions.

The project aims to significantly boost local economic activities by developing Chumur as a tourism destination on the Korzok–Hanle circuit.

Saxena described the project as a transformative initiative that goes beyond conventional development, and seeks to enhance the security, stability and resilience of the nation by strengthening border settlements. He stated that Chumur, owing to its strategic location along the India–China border, has been selected as Ladakh’s first Model Border Village, under the Vibrant Village Programme, a dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has consistently emphasised that border villages are not the “last villages” but the “first villages” of India. The village has been planned as an all-weather settlement with a reliable water supply, improved sanitation and wastewater management systems, renewable energy-based power infrastructure, modern digital connectivity and enhanced habitability during harsh winters.