Additional funding to be provided for the border road projects given India-

New Delhi: Following the Galwan Valley conflict, special attention is being paid to the infrastructure, to ensure that the military on the border is equipped with the latest defence equipment, on a timely basis. The union government has increased the provisions for the roads in the border areas. Disregarding the Chinese opposition, strong moves are being made to develop infrastructure in these regions. The projects undertaken by the government and additional funding will expedite military deployment and supplies in these border regions.

The union government increased the provision for roads in the border area from ₹3.4 billion to ₹4.4 billion. At the same time, the provision for the repair works of these roads also has been increased. For the current fiscal this provision has been increased from ₹1.2 billion to ₹2.2 billion. This is the second increase in the provision in the current fiscal. In June, the transport and highways ministry increased the provision fourfold to ₹1.2 billion.

Since the last few years, the government is paying serious attention to the development of infrastructure in the border areas. Under this initiative, roads are being built near the border and the bridge-building works have been expedited. In June, the transport ministry sanctioned ₹16.91 billion for the year 2020-21, for development of highways in the border areas of Jammu-Kashmir and Uttarakhand, through Border Roads Organisation (BRO). Out of these ₹13.51 billion is for roads in Jammu-Kashmir and ₹3.4 billion is for roads in Uttarakhand.

The transport ministry has sanctioned additional ₹710 million for highway works in Ladakh, Sikkim and other areas. Along with this, the provision for roads in the Northeastern states, under the Road Development Program, has been increased from ₹2.9 billion to ₹3.9 billion. Funds available to the regional offices in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have been raised from ₹1.4 billion to ₹1.5 billion and ₹1.8 billion respectively. Road building works have been started on 61 roads in treacherous terrains.

Six bridges, at extremely important strategically locations, in Jammu-Kashmir have already been dedicated to the nation. The bridge has been built on the Galwan river in Ladakh and BRO will build 17 more bridges in Jammu-Kashmir. Currently, BRO is carrying out work on 3,000 kilometres of roads. BRO’s budget between 2008 and 2016 was between ₹35 billion to ₹45 billion. But in the last few years, it had reached near ₹80 billion. Whereas, the budge provision of ₹118 billion, has been made for BRO for the year 2020-21.