Govt targets ₹31,000-cr for border roads & bridges

The Central government has proposed the construction of 64 strategic roads with a total length of 3,508 km and 103 bridges in areas falling in the India-China, Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Myanmar border areas entailing an estimated cost of over ₹31,000 crore. Most of the roads and all the bridges would come up in areas close to the India-China border in states like Arunachal, Manipur, Sikkim, Mizoram, J&K, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. The proposals are being placed before the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for approval. The strategic roads, which have been identified for the ‘India @75 Strategic Roads Package (ISRP)’, will also help reduce the road head differential gap with the border as compared to neighbouring countries. They said in Arunachal Pradesh, except for Kameng Sector, which is the border area opposite Tawang, the distance of road head from the Indian border varies from 20 km to 120 km. But in the case of China, it’s less than 8 km all along the border. Nearly 78% of the entire investment would be made in the projects that would be built in India-China border areas while roads proposed in India-Pakistan border areas would get another 14% of the total investment.