BORDER ROADS TO CONSTRUCT ROHTANG TUNNEL

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The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has been entrusted with the construction of nine km long Rohtang Tunnel which will be an alternate route to Leh. The work on the project will begin this year and is expected to be completed in ten years. This was stated by the Director General Border Roads, Lt Gen Prakash Suri here today. He was addressing the Ground Reserve Engineering Force sammelan on the occasion of the 42nd raising Day of BRO. Besides the Rohtang tunnel the BRO has also been entrusted with the construction of an 18 km long four-lane expressway between Jammu and Pathankot on NH1A. This is part of the North-South corridor of the prestigious National Highway Development Project. Referring to BRO's participation in the infrastructure development in foreign countries, Lt Gen Suri further stated that a team of technical experts would soon proceed to survey the 1700 km road network in Afghanistan and assess the contribution of BRO in the development of that country. The team would also visit Iran to assess the feasibility of BRO's role in road infrastructure development there. All the officers, supervisors and Jawans of BRO present at the sammelan paid homage to the 181 GREF personnel who lost their lives while on duty last year. Lt Gen Prakash Suri released the annual number of Border Roads Organisation 'Reflections' and presented Vishisht Sewa Medals to Shri Raman Singh, Chief Engineer, Shri TK Bhatnagar, SE (C) SG and Dr VK Yadav, SE (C) SG. Complementing the personnel for their outstanding work during 2001-2002, Lt Gen Suri said that the BRO has successfully completed 637.6 meter long permanent bridge at Noadhing in Arunachal Pradesh, which is the longest bridge constructed by the Organisation. This was part of 1403 metres of permanent bridge construction during the year 2001-2002. He said that the Organisation was able to complete 889 kms of formation cutting, 1271 kms of surfacing and 2548 kms of resurfacing of roads The Border Roads Organisation was conceptualized in March 1960, primarily to meet the defence infrastructure needs of the country especially in the Border States. Over the years, the Organisation has diversified into the construction of permanent RCC as well as steel bridges, airfields, townships, tunneling works and hydro-electric projects.