In accordance with the “Look East Policy” of the Government for connecting India with its immediate eastern and southeastern neighbours,, BRO has taken up construction of 2,000 Kms of double-lane road in the North-East under the flagship programme of Special Accelerated Road Development programme for the region.
This year, the BRO has an annual budget of Rs 5,425 crore. Speedy delivery mechanism and better maintenance of roads are two key result areas of the BRO. Major Thrust areas are, early completion of 61 numbers of India-China Border Roads out of which 15 roads are completed and balance are in progress. Two major projects, namely the Rohtang Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh and Basholi Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir are progressing well.
The Rohtang tunnel has doubled its rate of progress despite adverse weather conditions due to snow fall and cloud burst this year. The Basholi bridge, the foundation stone of which was laid on May 23, 2011 has taken off at very fast pace with excavation of abutments and drilling of 3 piles of 30 metre each completed.
A four-day Conference of Chief Engineers of 18 projects and Equipment Managers is being hosted by BRO in Delhi from September 13 to discuss various issues including those relating to problems being faced in the construction of roads and tunnels of strategic importance. New policies and amendments in existing policies, welfare measures for troops, quality control of works, R&D activities, in-house training of officers and personnel in the use of modern equipments and plans will be discussed during the conference.
The issues like enhancement of work capability, diversification and future challenges for the organization will also be taken up for discussion.
Director General Border Roads (DG BR) alongwith Chief Engineers of its 18 projects spread all over India and other senior officers connected with the project works will interact during this conference. Various dignitaries including the Minister of State for Defence, Chief of Army Staff, Secretary, Border Roads Development Board, Secretary, Defence Finance and engineers-in-chief from Army Headquarters will address the conference.
Various delegates from construction, equipment manufacturing companies will display the performance of equipment in use and requirement of new state-of-the-art equipment for quality and speedy construction of road works in hilly terrain in northern and north-eastern borders of India.
As a major capability increasing programme, restructuring of BRO which got approved in 2006 by the Government, is now going on its last leg. Out of 151 units/formations proposed for raising, 150 have been raised in the last three years with approval of the Government. In addition to it, all projects has been told to exploit outsourcing of work to the extent feasible keeping reliability and availability of contractors in mind, so that departmental resources can be concentrated on important tasks and in areas where outsourcing is not feasible. The results/benefits of this restructuring and outsourcing are expected to be seen in coming years.