Starting its journey in 1960, with two projects, this vital organisation, which is the lifeblood of all activity in the border areas, has offices in 11 states and three union territories, with 18 projects on hand. I attended a recent webinar on Border Roads Organisation (BRO), arranged by Security And Policy Initiatives (SAPI), a think tank founded by my friend Pradeep Gupta, former Joint Secretary of Border Management, MHA. Lt General Rajeev Chaudhary Ex DG BRO, was the main speaker. He is an M. Tech. from IISc, Bangalore, and a decorated officer from the 1983 batch of Corp of Engineers. He has revolutionised the BRO in the last few years, with the full support of two former defence secretaries.
The creation of nine world records in different aspects of border-related work done by him was possible by developing solid infrastructure in remote and difficult areas of the country, thereby presenting a strong deterrent for any misadventures from across the border. Realising that in most such inaccessible areas, the work window is restricted to six to seven months only in the Northern sector, due to harsh climate and snow, and in Eastern states due to incessant rains, he has been instrumental in getting the forest clearances fast and expediting the land acquisition wherever required.
He has set up two Centres of Excellence on Road Safety, and Construction Technology for roads, bridges and tunnels. He was given the Vishwakarma Achievement Award in 2022. One of his biggest achievements is to create a 3D-printed building complex in Chandigarh which will support a lot of work to be done in snow-capped Ladakh.
From making only roads till the 80s, BRO has diversified into constructing signature bridges and high-altitude mountain tunnels and creating and maintaining strategic airfields. He ensured that all bridges to be constructed in future would be Class 70 and the crucial ones on most forward locations to be modular bridges which are indigenously manufactured by GRSE at a cost, one one-third of the foreign bridges, with similar specifications, and all procurement is done through the GeM portal.
BRO is also environmentally friendly and started the use of steel slag for the resurfacing of roads. Also, plastic-coated aggregates are extensively being used for road construction. BRO employs nearly 90,000 contract labourers along our remote border locations. A natural offshoot of this is a reverse migration of the local population, once road connectivity is provided by BRO.
The budget of the BRO was nearly stagnant at about Rs. 4,000 crore annually for almost a decade till 2017-18, when it touched Rs. 5,500 crore. In the last seven years, it has nearly tripled to about Rs 15,000 crore. This indicates the enormity of the road expansion network especially in the last four years. The surge in construction, as a result, is reflected in average annual road construction of 1101 km and bridge construction of 3,652 m. Also, today 10 tunnels are under construction. These include some of the most difficult tunnelling work done in the states of Arunachal, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim. Nearly eight tunnels at 15,000 feet or above are in the planning stage or under construction, including the Cut and Cover tunnel in Ladakh.
BRO has the distinction of completing 21 airfields all along the Northern borders and five are being maintained by them. The most significant work done so far, to my mind, is the 278 km road from Hapoli, the capital of the district Lower Subansari, where I was Deputy Commissioner in 88-89, to Sarli which was a remote Taluk without any road connection, with food being provided through helicopter sorties every month. In the remote great Nicobar Island, BRO has the distinction of making difficult areas accessible through two roads built in 2021 and 2023.
For the religious pilgrims, BRO has improved and upgraded tracks to Shri Amarnath Holy Cave and also made a road up to an important pass which will enable thousands of pilgrims to have darshan of Mt. Kailash from within our country’s borders.
The quantum and capacity of work done by BRO is not possible without a relentless drive for automation and digitisation, undertaken by this agency for all work-related and human resources-related management. This results in huge gains in efficiency, effectiveness and cost-minimisation.
Some pertinent facets of BRO’s work in recent years have been the large-scale adoption of new technologies of which one of the most prominent ones is the construction of 30 numbers of Class 70 double-lane modular bridges, which is in line with Atmnirbhar Bharat. Other technologies include geosynthetics for slope stabilisation, micro piling for bridges on weak load-bearing river beds, snow erodoxes for avalanche-prone areas, non-frost sub base for high altitude roads, Cut and Fit technology for simultaneous construction in poor weather conditions, 3D printed buildings for faster construction, and carbon-neutral habitats in Ladakh. This has enabled faster construction possibilities, better quality control management, all-weather construction, to save on cost and manpower. BRO has also accessed new equipment worth nearly Rs 450 crore in the last two years and signed MoUs with large OEMs for the supply of spares.
It has earned the nickname of being the first responder during natural calamities, recently. In April 2023, it rescued 22 tourists affected by the avalanche in Sikkim and enabled 350 stranded tourists in 80 vehicles, through swift snow clearance. In October 2023, it evicted more than 2,500 stranded tourists in Northern Sikkim, when devastating floods swept away 16 bridges and 20 km of road network. A wooden footbridge over River Teesta enabled this to happen after 96 hours.
To undertake these difficult tasks in inhospitable terrain and weather conditions, BRO uses container-type accommodation for all its staff and workers to ensure their safety and security. It has established SATCOM telemedicine nodes by signing an MoU with ISRO and connecting to Service hospitals through VSAT.
One of the globally noted achievements of BRO is constructing the highest motorable road at 19024 ft with minus 40 degree temperatures, in Ladakh in 2021. It has branched out into making aerial ropeways, inland river ports, and other associated infrastructure for high altitude requirements within India and abroad. The important landmarks abroad are the road network and Paro airfield in Bhutan, 160 km. road in Myanmar, a 216 km highway in Afghanistan, and 3 major projects in Tajikistan including a runway, roadwork, and a big 8-lane bypass to connect to remote villages in that country.
BRO works for five ministries and several state governments and hence deals with a variety of projects, assigned to it. It has the distinction of creating the highest-span bridge in just 174 days. To work at such breathtaking speed, and without causing inconvenience to the residents in such areas, BRO specialises in working at night which is tough and risky, but the only workable option. In winter in J&K, BRO constructed a bridge at 12,000 ft., using gloves to create the pillars, because of the extreme cold.
General Chaudhary feels that the time has come for BRO to be given the head of department status in the Ministry of Defense, to ease the bureaucratic control and enable R&D and modernization of equipment. It should be designated as the skill development agency for all border areas of the country and tasked to create skilled manpower, for improving life near borders, including in the sectors of education and health. BRO can also play a vital role through good military diplomacy, evidenced by its increasing role and importance in executing tasks abroad through BRO Videsh.
At the end of the webinar, I asked General Chaudhary how he plans to ensure proper road maintenance, as that is a crucial bottleneck in our far-flung areas. Since only 18,000 km. of roads out of 63,000, constructed so far, are entrusted to BRO, I strongly recommend that the Ministry of Home Affairs and Defence earmark all border roads for maintenance to BRO. Otherwise, the massive projects completed today will get washed away without maintenance, over some time. Secondly, I raised the issue of landslides in the North-Eastern regions and the hilly areas of India. He acknowledged that this is a perennial corrective task to be undertaken, but rapid urbanisation is causing this problem, and better urban planning is the answer. On my query on how to make shortcut roads in inhospitable terrain, he responded that technology exists today to get road alignments which are the shortest and cheapest, compared to what was available in the 1980s. I also raised the issue of the lack of signage in most parts of hilly India, and he agreed that this is a priority that should be taken up in right earnest, by all state governments.
With a 3,000-odd kilometre border with China, a country which has been breathing down our neck, BRO is a saviour for India. It has raised respect amongst our neighbours through swift border road and allied infrastructure development, in the last decade, very substantially. The challenge now lies in identifying where we have the largest possibilities of border skirmishes, and what are our priorities for road construction in these areas, so that we are not caught unprepared by the adversaries.
BRO is not only a building organisation, but a vital organ for preventive maintenance in border management. It must be viewed by the powers that be, in the right perspective.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication.
