Not getting environment clearance proving bottleneck for many border road projects

The Border Road Organisation (BRO), in charge of constructing vital transport infrastructure along the countrys international borders, is facing difficulty in starting various projects in strategically important Jammu and Kashmir owing to delay in getting clearances from the Ministry of Environment.

By Sudhakar Jagdish

Manali (Himachal Pradesh), Sept 24 : The Border Road Organisation (BRO), in charge of constructing vital transport infrastructure along the country's international borders, is facing difficulty in starting various projects in strategically important Jammu and Kashmir owing to delay in getting clearances from the Ministry of Environment.

Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju, who chaired the Board meeting of the BRO here today, admitted that one of the major reasons that BRO projects were being delayed is difficulty in getting environmental clearances.

Raju said this after chairing a five-hour long marathon meeting of the 16-member BRO Board, which met for the first time outside Delhi.

However, in today's meeting, representative from Ministry of Environment, which is generally represented by the Secretary of the Ministry, was conspicuous by its absence.

The BRO is in charge of numerous projects inside and outside the country, and is presently involved in the construction of an all-weather 292-km alternate road to Leh that involves the state of the art nine-km long Rohtang tunnel in Himachal Pradesh.

Most of the projects facing delay due to lack of environmental clearances are in Jammu and Kashmir, and belong to rupees 1827 crores special package announced for the state by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Under the special package announced by the Prime Minster for J and K, BRO is currently involved in the upgradation of 17.25-km long connecting Uri with Line of Control (LoC), double laning of 422-km long Srinagar-Leh road via Kargil and others.

Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand follow J and K in number of border road projects delayed by the clearances from the Environment Ministry.

Few projects in strategically important Arunachal Pradesh, where across the international border China has built new infrastructure, are also getting delayed due to the same reason. The BRO is carrying out works on different projects under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for the North East region.

Though the Minister said that projects are very important, as they would help in economically integrating those different regions of the country, which have not been able to flourish in spite of the economic boom in different parts of the country.

The minister also said that sourcing of materials to the project site and limited period of time in carrying out the construction work since most of the areas get covered by snow were also responsible for the deadline of the projects being extended.

The BRO board will be meeting four times in a year to accelerate the project and review it timely. For accelerating the projects, the BRO has also decided to increase the number of employees and quick procurement of machinery.

ANI