India has launched an investment drive targeting villages and infrastructure along its disputed northern border with China, in a bid to strengthen its presence on the ground amid heightened tensions between the world’s two most populous countries.

Amit Shah, India’s home affairs minister and a top deputy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, travelled on Monday to Arunachal Pradesh, a sparsely populated north-eastern territory, to inaugurate the scheme, which aims to boost living conditions and employment prospects in five states and territories that border China.

Arunachal Pradesh was the site of a violent clash in December between Chinese and Indian soldiers, in which both sides sustained injuries. China claims all of the contested territory as part of Tibet, and in 2015 summoned India’s ambassador to object after Modi visited the region.