40-50 Bridges Under Constructed In Ladakh To Speed Up Troop Movement, Wil Be Completed In The Next Few Months: BRO

Amid tensions with China in eastern Ladakh, India is working on around 40-50 bridges in border areas, the Director General of Border Roads Organisation (BRO), Lieutenant General Harpal Singh, said earlier today.

Work on these bridges, the BRO Director General said, will be completed between six months from now to one and a half years.

He made the statement following the inauguration of 44 bridges in border states and union territories of India by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Of the 44 bridges the Defence Minister inaugurated today, 10 are in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, 8 in the Union Territory of Ladakh, 2 in Himachal Pradesh, 4 in Punjab, 8 in Uttarakhand and 4 in Sikkim.

BRO, an agency under the Defence Ministry, responsible for the construction and upkeep of strategic roads and bridges in India’s border areas.

“A large number of bridges are under construction in Ladakh. About 40-50 bridges are under construction, which will be completed between 6 months to one and a half years,” Lieutenant General Harpal Singh said.

The bridges coming up along India’s borders will ensue, among other things, “speedier movement of our strategic forces” during tensions, he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the Rohtang Tunnel earlier this month. The new tunnel, the longest tunnel in the world at an elevation above 10,000 feet, will make the movement of troops and equipment to Ladakh easier.

Work on border roads in Ladakh continues at full pace amid tensions.

Renovation work on the Durbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie (DS-DBO) road, which is critical for connectivity to north-eastern Ladakh — called sub-sector north by the Army, is likely to be complete by the end of October.

“The black topping of the DBO road will be completed by the end of this month,” a report in India Today quotes Lieutenant General Harpal Singh, Director General of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), the agency responsible for the construction and maintenance of roads along India’s borders, as saying.