Even as the Government decides to overhaul and upgrade 73 critical and strategically important roads for development under Indo-China Border Roads Project, of which 61 projects have been assigned to Border Roads Organisation (BRO), it is also planning to set up a board to oversee and implement the construction work.
Upset with the slow pace of work in the border regions, the Ministry of Roads Transport and Highways (MoRTH) wants to administer all construction work along the Border States to improve inter-state connectivity.
In the last five years, 12.16 km of border roads have been completed in Sikkim, 419.98 km in Arunachal Pradesh, 186.73 in Uttarakhand, 114.05 in Himachal Pradesh, 384.28 km in Jammu & Kashmir.
MoRTH has circulated a note asking for comments from other ministries. “We want to seek opinion from other Ministries — Finance, Defence, Environment etc before putting forward the proposal before cabinet,” said an official from MoRTH.
“The board will be answerable to the ministry. Road projects in north-east, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand will be under the supervision and close monitoring of the board,” said an official.
The official said that the board will be particularly useful in supervising construction activities, particularly in upper reaches of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, where immense work in underway.
“The uncertain weather conditions in June-July this year destroyed a lot of road ways in these states. lot of realignment and redevelopment activity is underway. All this new activity can be under the jurisdiction of the new board,” said the official.
“This will not just help in speeding up projects and but also help in ensuring that agencies carrying out the work swiftly, without sitting on funds,” said the official.
The roads, which the ministry is proposing to bring under the new board are mostly with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO).