Border Roads Organisation

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The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) develops and maintains road networks in India’s border areas and friendly neighboring countries. BRO maintains operations in twenty-one states, one UT (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), and neighboring countries such as Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. The BRO operates and maintains over 32,885 kilometers of roads and about 12,200 meters of permanent bridges in the country.

More About Border Roads Organisation

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is a road construction executive force, partly integral to and in support of the Army.
It started operations in May 1960 with just two projects-Project Tusker (renamed Project Vartak) in the east and Project Beacon in the west. It has now grown into a 13 project executive force, supported by a well-organised recruiting/ training centre and two well equipped base workshops for overhaul of plant/ equipment and two engineer store depots for inventory management.
The BRO has not only linked the border areas of the north and north-east with the rest of the country, but has also developed the road infrastructure in Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh.
The BRO was conceived of to construct and maintain roads in the border areas, classified as General Staff (GS) roads, in line with defence requirements. GS roads are developed and maintained through funds provided by the Border Roads Development Board (BRDB), through the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
Over the years, the BRO has diversified into the construction of airfields, permanent steel and prestressed concrete bridges and accommodation projects.
The BRO also has an operational role during national emergencies and the outbreak of hostilities, when it provides direct support to the Army in the maintenance of roads in the forward zones and executes other functions specified by the government.
It also provides the workforce for the rehabilitation of certain forward airfields of the Indian Air Force during operations. The BRO was actively involved in Operation Parakram in support of Army formations in the western sector.
The Director-General Border Roads (DGBR) is the executive head of the BRO. The Organisation provides a General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) as the execution force to build and maintain roads through a Chief Engineer (Projects).
The DGBR is an executive body providing technical, financial and administrative infrastructure for the Border Roads Development Board (BRDB). The BRDB was set up in March 1960 as an inter-ministerial body, under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, to oversee the development of road communications in the border states of the north and north-east.
The BRDB was reconstituted in 1985 with the Defence Minister as the chairman. Currently, the Minister of State for Defence is the chairman of the Board.

Milestones of BRO

The construction of the 9-km long Rohtang Tunnel, related access roads to its portals and a 292-km long alternate route to Leh.
The BRO has been entrusted with the construction of a 17.20-km four-lane expressway from Pathankot to Jammu (NH-1A) on behalf of the NHAI, as part of the NHDP’s North-South corridor.
The construction of 137 km of roads and 25 permanent bridges as a General Staff requirement in Punjab.
The responsibility of the maintenance of the prestigious 160 Km long Tamu-Kalemyo-Kalewa road constructed by the organisation in Myanmar has been given to it for a period of six years.
The Organisation was conferred an award by the Institute of Bridge Engineers for the Hu Bridge constructed over a 15-meter deep gorge in Arunachal Pradesh.
The construction of a 842-km long road network in the Naxalite prone districts of Gadchiroli and Bhandara in Maharashtra, under Project Hirak, is in an advanced stage of progress.