BRO to fence major portion of India-Myanmar border: Top official

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) will fence a major portion of the strategic India-Myanmar border, and a 10-km stretch in Manipur has already been covered, a senior official said. 

The Ministry of Home Affairs has identified around 1,700 km of fencing that needs to be done, BRO’s Additional Director General (East) PKH Singh said. 

The organisation has already finished fencing 10 km along the border in Manipur’s Moreh, which was handed over to the Assam Rifles, Singh told PTI in an interview. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently said the Centre has decided that the India-Myanmar border will be protected by barbed fencing like the India-Bangladesh border, and the government was rethinking the free movement agreement with Myanmar. 

Four Indian states – Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram – share a 1,643-km border with Myanmar. Singh said the next 80-km stretch in Manipur has also been identified and the detailed project report (DPR) submitted to the ministry. 

Fencing the remaining 250 km, along with its approach roads, is in the planning stage with the DPR under preparation. “The fencing of the India-Myanmar border is an important project for the BRO, which is now coming up in Moreh. The area around this border has been unfenced for long, and there was a need to check the activities around it,” the ADG said. 

Also Read: Nagaland to discuss with other NE states regarding decision to fence Indo-Myanmar border: DyCM

Singh said the BRO has a long-term roll-out plan of nearly Rs 30,000 crore in the northeast over the next five years, and out of this, almost two-thirds is focused in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. The organisation was earlier involved in fencing the India-Bangladesh border along with the BSF, he said. 

“We are currently executing projects covering a wide canvas of disparate infrastructure development, ranging from connecting far-flung remote areas to building strategic roads for the armed forces, encompassing bridges, tunnels, protection works for landslide zones, airfields, helipads and jetties,” he said. Besides the northeastern states, the BRO East is also involved in developing infrastructural facilities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 

“In the archipelago, we are at present focusing on the Campbell Bay area where a 40-km stretch at Indira Point was washed away during a tsunami. We are in an advanced planning stage for a runway extension and construction of jetties along with accommodation facilities in the area,” Singh said. The BRO has received a lot of requests from CAPFs, the navy and coast guard in the area for various works stretching around 1,600 km, he said. 

The organisation’s primary focus, however, is the strategic infrastructure development of the India-China Border Roads (ICBR) in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, coordinated by the home ministry and the defence ministry, the senior official said. 

“Out of the 29 projects of 1,400 km in the first phase, 24 road projects of more than 1,287 km have been completed, while the remaining five are nearing completion,” Singh said. 

In the second phase, 17 road projects of 548 km have been taken up with 132 km already completed, while in the third phase, seven projects of 411 km are under the planning stage, he said. 

Besides, the BRO has also been entrusted with 531 km out of the 1,748-km of the Frontier Highway, comprising the India-China-Myanmar border, the ADG said. 

The BRO’s ambit will be in nine stretches, with work in three portions of 130 km having already commenced. The remaining six stretches are in the DPR stage, Singh added.