Director general of Border Roads Organisation lieutenant general R M Mittal said, in an exclusive interview to The Pioneer, that the progress of road construction has increased three folds with the recent procurement of equipment for blasting mountains and road-laying from foreign countries. “Forty such machines having already been procured by BRO and in a span of two to three years, the organisation hopes to complete the road construction work in Uttarakhand till the crossing point of China border,” he said.
Addressing the 17th foundation day of College of Engineering Roorkee on Thursday afternoon, he gave the statistical comparison of the manufacturing sector, power sector, IT sector and infrastructure development which includes roads, railways available. He said that the engineering students must not worry themselves about placement, but equip themselves to face the new challenges of the industry.
Addressing the students at the College auditorium, Mittal said, “Infrastructure development is on the top of the Government’s agenda with funding from private as well as public sectors. So the young engineers need to imbibe certain traits that will take them through.” He stressed on honesty and discipline to push on in life and career.
He said he was happy to be in the town after 40 years where he had studied in the University of Roorkee .
“Spending on only two major modes of infrastructure - roads and railways- is pegged at 3.6 billion US dollars in the financial year 2015-16. IT sector is all set to expand upto 300 billion US dollars by year 2020. Automobile industry is also set to become the third largest in the world by the end of next year,” he said.
Responding to the questions posed by The Pioneer on the role of roads in enhancing the nation’s security, Mittal said that as compared to China and other countries, Himalayan terrain here is a tougher terrain, posing regular challenges while building roads. “We lost 17 men working in the past years. The higher reaches of Uttarakhand are landslide prone. Still, we have built road upto Khatimpur and Navaghat and the work is going on. With the traditional route to Mansarovar being completed, people of Uttarakhand would be immensely benefitted.”
Speaking on the security point of view, DG said that to define the territory of a country, roads play a major
role. “Construction of roads in the State till the border crossing point is itself a reason to show the prowess territory wise.”
At the end of the day, he gave proficiency awards to 55 first year and second year students of the college and to 44 students of BTech, third and fourth year.