New Delhi: Nearly 40 percent of the roads that the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has constructed in the last three years fall in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, shows data submitted by Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt in a written response to a question in Lok Sabha.
This comes in the backdrop of India’s standoff with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since 2020.
In his response, Bhatt said that of the total of 2,445 km of roads constructed in all of India’s border states/UTs, 507 km — the largest chunk — was in Arunachal Pradesh. This was followed by 453 km in Ladakh, and 443 km in Jammu & Kashmir.
The rest were constructed in nine states — Uttarakhand, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Sikkim, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Punjab — and in the Union territory of Andaman & Nicobar, Bhatt said.
This comes in the middle of India’s massive push for border infrastructure — a significant turnaround from its decades-old policy of being wary of strengthening road connectivity along the LAC for fear of Chinese aggression.
One of the big projects initiated by the Narendra Modi government is the Arunachal Frontier Highway. Envisaged by the Army in 2012 and one of the country’s biggest and toughest projects, it is a 2,000-km long road that follows the McMahon Line and will begin from Mago in Arunachal Pradesh, adjacent to Bhutan, and pass through Tawang, Upper Subansiri, Tuting, Mechuka, Upper Siang, Debang Valley, Desali, Chaglagam, Kibithu, Dong, before ending at Vijayanagar near the Myanmar border.
Funds sanctioned
According to the information that Bhatt gave in the House, the government had sanctioned Rs 923 crore — the highest in the last two years — for the BRO in the 2022-23 fiscal. Of this, the organisation had spent Rs 846 crore.
This is in comparison to the Rs 870 crore (sanctioned) and Rs 841 crore (spent) in 2020-21 and the Rs 752 crore (sanctioned) and Rs 744 crore (spent) in 2021-22.
In border areas, the BRO constructs roads according to the armed forces’ priorities.
The central government had enhanced administrative and financial powers of various BRO executives to reduce the planning time, Bhatt said in his response, adding that the organisation has adopted new technologies and has inducted equipment such as heavy excavators, spider excavators, and lightweight crawler rock drills.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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