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Recently, the Defence Minister dedicated to the nation two Centres of Excellence established by Border Roads Organisation (BRO)
Key updates
Following two Centres have been established to achieve excellence in road safety as well as foster growth in construction of roads, bridges, air fields and tunnels.
The Centre of Excellence for Road Safety & Awareness (CoERSA):
- It aims to create awareness about road safety through analysis, sharing of road accidents and suggesting methods to save precious lives.
The Centre of Excellence for Roads, Bridges, Air Fields and Tunnels (CoERBAT) :
- It focuses on institutionalising the knowledge gained over the years in development of almost 60,000 kilometres of roads, 56,000 metres of bridges, 19 airfields and four tunnels in the eastern and north-western part of the country.
During the ceremony, the Defence Minister also unveiled four software programmes designed to improve BRO personnel’s job efficiency, including HR management, recruitment, and work management.
Other initiatives
Road accidents as a silent pandemic that claims approximately 1.5 lakh lives every year in this regard, the Government has taken a number of initiatives such as
- National Road Safety Policy
- Motor Vehicle Act 2020 and
- Identification of black spots on national highways to tackle the problem
About the Border Roads Organisation (BRO)
- It 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
- BRO develops and maintains road networks in India’s border areas and friendly neighboring countries.
- Recent achievements of BRO: State-of-the-art construction of ‘Atal Tunnel, Rohtang’, Kailash Mansarovar Road and Zojila pass.
- Measures taken by the Central Government for the development of BRO: These include an increase in the budget of BRO, approval of special high-altitude clothing for the personnel as well as cadre review to boost morale
Extra reading: https://journalsofindia.com/border-roads-organisation/