BRO may hire helicopters to expedite road construction in Arunachal Pradesh

Itanagar, Jan 21 (ANI): Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju has asked the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to explore the possibility of hiring helicopters from outside agencies to expedite construction of strategic roads in Arunachal Pradesh and other Himalayan border states.

Presiding over a meeting of the Border Roads Development Board (BRDB) here last evening, Raju stressed on the need to build infrastructure right upto the border areas.

The Director-General, Border Roads Lieutenant General MC Badhani informed the meeting that the Indian Air Force airlift capability was extremely low, leading to delays in most border roads in Arunachal beyond 2013.

Against BRO's need of 3,500 tons last year, only 400 tons was actually airlifted.

The Pawan Hans has submitted an initial proposal to partially meet the BRO's helicopter requirements in the North-East, said General Badhani, but their pilots were not trained for hanging payloads that need to be airdropped in inaccessible places lacking landing sites.

Over 75 per cent of BRO's road construction projects are in high altitude areas an requires special training for the pilots.

The BRO is presently building 2,764 kms of the total 5,061 kms road length in Arunachal Pradesh alone. (ANI)