Defence minister Rajnath Singh inaugurates 75 BRO projects in forward areas
The infrastructure, including roads and bridges, will significantly boost military mobility and logistics support for deployed forces in forward areas
Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday dedicated to the country 75 BRO (Border Roads Organisation) infrastructure projects, worth ₹2,236 crore, across 11 states and union territories, including Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, in India’s latest infrastructure push along the China border and other remote areas.
The infrastructure, including roads and bridges, will significantly boost military mobility and logistics support for deployed forces in forward areas.
Singh, who virtually inaugurated the projects from Sukna in West Bengal, said the projects were a testament to the government’s unwavering resolve to further strength border infrastructure and ensure socio-economic progress of these areas.
“India will be one of the safest and strongest nations in the times to come,” he said.
The development comes amid China’s unrelenting infrastructure push along the India border during the last five years.
The projects will go a long way in enhancing the country’s defence preparedness, Singh said. Nineteen of the projects are in J&K, 11 in Ladakh (the centre of the current border tensions with China), 18 in Arunachal Pradesh, nine in Uttarakhand, six in Sikkim, five in Himachal Pradesh, two each in West Bengal and Rajasthan, and one each in Nagaland, Mizoram and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the defence ministry said in a statement.
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This has taken the count of the BRO projects dedicated to the country this year to 111 at a total cost of ₹3,751 crore. Last year, 125 BRO projects worth ₹3,611 crore were dedicated to the nation, boosting India’s defence preparedness against its adversaries on the northern and western fronts.
Singh praised the grit and determination of BRO personnel for completing the projects in a time-bound manner even in most challenging terrains and harsh weather conditions, adding that the government, in its third term, aims to further bolster the border infrastructure with more promptness.
The governments before 2014 were of the view that the development of border areas can have an adverse impact as it may be used by the country’s adversaries, he said.
“In the last decade, we have built a vast network of roads from villages to cities, which has resulted in the country witnessing progress at an unprecedented pace,” Singh added.
BRO, which is at the centre of the India’s border infrastructure push, has completed 450 infrastructure projects worth ₹16,000 crore in the last five years, as previously reported by HT. These projects include new roads, bridges, tunnels, airfields and helipads.
The military’s readiness, among other things, depends on infrastructure in forward areas --- a landscape dotted with towering mountains, valleys and rivers --- and India is firing on all cylinders to ensure that its deployed forces hold an advantageous position.
India lags China in border infrastructure but the country is catching up fast on the back of speedy execution of strategic projects to support military operations, increased spending, and focussed adoption of technology and techniques to fill gaps that came into focus after the standoff with China began in April-May 2020.
The military standoff between India and China in eastern Ladakh is in its fifth year, with no indication of a resolution to the outstanding problems along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC). To be sure, India is hoping that ongoing negotiations with China will help restore the status quo ante of April 2020.
On Friday, Singh hailed the army’s readiness to tackle any contingency in the Ladakh theatre, even as he pinned hopes on the ongoing negotiations with China for a peaceful resolution.
Addressing the army commanders’ conference, he said India was “cautiously optimistic” about a resolution of the row.