India to begin work on 27 border roads in December

New Delhi, Sep 1 (UNI) India will construct 27 new roads along the Indo-China border as part of efforts to provide more facilities to the people living there.

Joint Secretary (Border Management) H S Brahma told mediapersons during an informal chat that the roads, coming up in states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, would together have a length of 862 km.

The estimated cost of the project was Rs 900 crore.

The work would start in December this year and would be completed in four years.

He said 16 out of the 27 projects would be executed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and the remaining by the CPWD. The BRO would construct roads on the high reaches in Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh.

Mr Brahma said the allocation for the Border Area Development Programme (BADP) had been increased to Rs Rs 520 crore during 2007 from Rs 321 crore during the previous year. "The amount will be further hiked in the next budget." "Jammu and Kashmir gets the maximum allocation under the BAD programme every year," he said, in reply to a question.

He said the government also proposed certain roads along the Indo- Nepal and Indo-Bhutan border. "They will be finalised within the next three months." Mr Brahma said the quality of life and feeling of freedom were the highest among the Indians living on the borders as compared to those on the side of the neighbour countries.

He said India had a total of 15,100 km of land border spread over 94 districts in 17 states.

UNI SH VD HT1818