Struggling with 73 roads, govt plans 55 more on China border

The Centre plans to construct 55 new roads along the hilly terrain of the India-China border, even as government agencies struggle to complete 73 strategic roads in the region.

The 73 roads are also way behind schedule. The new links proposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), to augment the border infrastructure, would be in addition to already approved 27 roads under the MHA close to the border with an approximate length of 805 km at an estimated cost of Rs 1,937 crore. The Ministry of Defence has given its “operational clearance” for the 55 roads.

The MHA has asked the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and National Projects Construction Corporation (NPCC) to prepare the detailed project reports.According to the Outcome Budget of MHA, the CPWD would prepare the DPR for 54 roads while the remaining one would be the responsibility of the NPCC. The MHA released Rs 18.15 crore to the CPWD to prepare the DPRs.

But both the home and defence ministries are finding it tough to complete the roads already approved by the government following the recommendations of the China Study Group under the Prime Minister’s Office, which identified 73 such roads.

The Border Roads Organisation was asked to build 61 of the 73 roads with a total length of 3417 km. Originally, they were to be completed by 2012, but the completion schedule has now been pushed back to 2020. Only 21 roads are ready. Bulk of the pending works are in Arunachal Pradesh (16 roads), Uttarakhand (12) and Jammu and Kashmir (9).

On two roads, the work is yet to commence due to pending wildlife clearance.Similarly, the MHA set September 2016 as the deadline for completing work on 27 roads, but could finish only six roads. The construction of Ghastoli-Rattakona road in Uttarakhand has been stopped while the work is in progress on 20 roads.

“The roads to be constructed are located in high altitude areas between 9,000 to 14,000 feet. Oxygen depletion limits working capacity of labourers. Other constraints are air support, hard rock, natural calamities and limited working season,” says the outcome budget document.