On March 27, 2023, the Indian government is considering a proposal of constructing to build 37 more roads with a cumulative length of 875km along the India-China Border.
This 13,000-crore work has been proposed under the India-China Border Roads Program (ICBR) and around seventy percent of these roads under this scheme will be built in Arunachal Pradesh as per the proposal.
Currently the first and second phase of the ICBR scheme are underway and these involve the construction of 1,435km of roads in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. The total estimated investment will be Rs 1600 crore.
The ICBR project envisages development of important infrastructure along the LAC by constructing strategic roads which also includes bridges, tunnels largely in response to infrastructure development by the Chinese on the other side of the border.
According to sources, the proposal of the ICBR-III came up after a high-level meeting where the issues of delaying the process of projects under the current two phases of the program was discussed.
There is a proposal to give first priority to the ICBR-III as the starting point of these roads will be available. As far as remaining stretches are concerned, the start point will be available after completion of ongoing projects.
“The agencies involved in the construction and giving statutory approvals have been directed to fast track the process and complete the ongoing projects quickly.” said a source.
The twenty-five roads built under the first phase of the ICBR are scheduled to for completion in December 2023. In case of the second phase, work has been active in 25 out of 32 projects.
Work is yet to start in the remaining project due to pending forest clearance and revision in the detailed project reports.
There are four governmental agencies tasked to implement the projects which are: BRO (Border Roads Organisation), ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police), CPWD (Central Public Working Department) and NHIDCL (National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited).
According to officials, the agencies face several challenges including limited working season due to high altitude, inhospitable terrain, establishment and maintenance of connectivity to move man and materials besides statutory clearances.
Recently, the government decided to set up a committee of secretaries to fast track the implementation of infrastructure projects along the border with China. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by defence minister Rajnath Singh.
