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Gallantry awards likely for killed engineers

NEW DELHI: The names of the two Border Roads Organisation (BRO) engineers recently killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan have been recommended for gallantry awards.

Despite the security risk, the BRO is confident of completing the Afghanistan road project.

The BRO loses about 300 people (including casual labourers) every year while building roads at high altitudes and in remote areas. Although army men receive most of the gallantry awards, the BRO’s contribution too has been recognised and several men have been posthumously awarded.

“By and large security measures are in place and we hope to pull out [complete the project] by July-August. About 80 per cent of the work on the Zaranj-Delaram road in Afghanistan is complete.

We are working on the last 30 km of the 220-km road,” said BRO Director General Lt. Gen. A.K. Nanda on the eve of the BRO’s 48th raising day.

The road begins from near the Iran border and leads to the ring road connecting all major cities in Afghanistan. India has initiated talks on constructing a rail line from the Chabar port in Iran to a location close to the Zaranj-Delaram road.

If the project fructifies, it will be possible to send Indian goods via this link to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and even beyond to Russia and other Central Asian countries.

On roads along the China border, the BRO is throwing in additional resources to implement the Prime Minister’s initiative to provide better connectivity to the people of the region and ensure that military movement is smoother and faster.

The government has identified 3,400 km of a total of 64 roads as “critical” and directed their completion by 2012. Nine roads have been completed and work has been taken up on 52 other roads. The BRO is also resurfacing a road in Myanmar to provide connectivity to the Northeast from the Bay of Bengal to take pressure off the sole existing road connecting the region to mainland India.

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