The Centre has reviewed the ongoing road projects along the Sino-Indian border and has decided to speed up the work on 32 road projects. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting convened by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and attended by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), among others. The works will be accelerated on 32 road projects along the border with China and all agencies concerned will extend cooperation to fast-track the projects. In all, 73 roads are being constructed along the Sino-Indian border. Of these, CPWD is working on 12 and BRO on 61 projects, under the direct supervision of MHA, which is the nodal authority for border infrastructure-related projects. At least three vital roads are being constructed by BRO in Ladakh.
Apart from the roads, priority will also be given to projects related to development of other border infrastructure such as power, health, telecom and education. The formation-cutting works were completed for 470 km roads along the border in 2017-20 as compared to 230 km in 2008-17. Also, surface-clearing has been done for 380 km of roads in 2017-20 from 170 km in 2008-17. A total of six road tunnels were constructed in 2014-20 and additional 19 road tunnels are under planning stage. In all 14,450 mtr of border road bridges were completed and 4,764 km of roads were constructed in 2014-20. A budget of Rs 540 crore was earmarked for road projects for the border areas in 2017-18, Rs 6,700 crore in 2018-19, Rs 8,050 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 11,800 crore in 2020-21.