BRO to celebrate 46th raising day

New Delhi, May 5: The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), set up to meet the defence infrastructure needs of the country, especially in border areas, celebrates 46 years of its existence on May 7.

From a two project organisation, it has grown into 13 large projects, diversifying into construction of permanent concrete and steel bridges, accommodation projects, border fencing, airfields and tunnelling works, BRO Director General Lt Gen K S Rao told reporters.

The Organisation is manned by about 33,000 permanent employees-- Army jawans and civilians-- and about 80,000 casual labourers drawn from areas where it works.

Braving the remote and inhospitable terrain, and adverse climatic and envionmental conditions as well as the insurgency in the North and the Northeast, they have completed 38,740 km of roads and 20,095 metres of permanent bridges.

Over the years, the BRO has achieved several milestones that include construction of the Leh Airfield at an altitude of 10,500 feet, construction and maintenance of the 160 km-long Tamu-Kalemyo-Kalewa Road in Myanmar, development of road stretch from Uri-Muzaffarabad (PoK) in a record one-month for the bus link opened on April 2005, upgradation of another bus link from Poonch to Rawalkot leading to PoK up to the Line of Control, and construction and maintenance of more than 1,500 km of road network in Bhutan.

Today, the BRO is on the threshold of a giant leap forward with prestigious works such as the 8.8 km-long Rohtang tunnel, four laning under the National Highway Development Programme and the 219 km-long road from Afghanistan to Iran.

UNI