46% budget hike for new border roads
Move aims at expediting ongoing border projects, construction of strategic roads
Amidst heightened tensions with China, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is likely to see a whopping 46 per cent jump in its annual budget in the current fiscal (2020-21) to boost ongoing projects in the border areas and to expedite the construction of strategic roads, bridges and tunnels, said defence ministry on Thursday.
In 2019-2020, BRO’s annual budget was raised to `8,050 crore. “With the focus of the government on improving infrastructure in border areas, the budget for FY 2020-2021 is likely to be `11,800 crore,” said the defence ministry.
The annual budget of the BRO had varied from `3,300 crore to `4,600 crore in the FY 2008-2016, it said.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday dedicated six major strategic bridges constructed by BRO in J&K border areas to the nation.
Despite Chinese objection, India is pushing ahead with its infrastructure building activities at the line of actual control.
Earlier this week, the defence ministry instructed the BRO that the 255kilometre Darbuk-ShyokDaulat Beg Oldi (DS-DBO) road in Ladakh should be completed this year before October. The construction of DS-DBO road has angered the Chinese and is one of the reasons
for its intrusion into the Galwan Valley. The road connects to the base of the Karakoram pass, which is the last military post. This road is near Aksai Chin and Chinese fear that this gives Indian army capability to threaten the Lhasa-Kashgar highway.
Sources said till last year the BRO was able to do blacktopping of the road till 210 kilometres and the rest of it will be completed
this year. With this road which is at a height of 17,000 feet, it will take Indian army to reach Daulat Beg Oldie from Leh in six hours against two days without it.
The BRO was given the task to build up 61 strategic Indo-China Border Roads (ICBRs) having a total length of 3,409 kilometres. Out of the 61 ICBRs, 28 roads of length 981.17 km were completed by 2018.