Border Roads Organisation

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) maintains roads that serve the borders areas of India. It is staffed with a combination of Border Roads Engineering Service officers from the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) and officers from the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army civil engineers from College of Military Engineering Kirkee Pune. The organisation develops and maintains arterial roads on the borders of India. The BRO is also involved in the construction of a tunnel at the Rohtang pass. BRO's activities have also helped to accelerate the economic development of the North and North-Eastern border states of India. The road-construction teams have to deal with harsh climatic conditions. The BRO faces environments like the icy Himalayan mountaintops, the marshes of West Bengal, and the deserts in Rajasthan. The BRO builds and maintains roads at high altitude; Some of the BRO roads are built as high as 5608 m above mean sea level.

The Border Roads Organisation operates a network of over 32885 km of roads and 12200 m of permanent bridges. BRO has operations in twenty-two states, including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory.

History
The BRO was formed on 7 May 1960 as the Border Roads Development Board with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as its chairman. BRO is led by the Director General of Border Roads, who holds the rank of Lieutenant General.

Structure
The BRO consists of the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF)—the execution force—under the Ministry of Surface Transport, and officers from Indian Army Corps of Engineers, who are deputed on loan to this organisation. The GREF includes civil, electrical, and mechanical engineers. They are selected from engineering colleges across India through the Indian Engineering Services examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. The staff also includes administrative officers, supervisors, and other trades. The organisation's operations are spread across India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan.

The fundamental unit of the BRO is similar to a platoon. The functional platoon, composed of civil engineer officers from the GREF and civil engineers from the College of Military Engineering, Kirkee Pune, is in charge of activities such as formation cutting, surfacing, and safety mechanisms to maintain correct road geometry. BRO units also handle the construction of permanent and temporary bridges, causeways, and airfields.

The BRO includes 18 Projects, which are divided into Task Forces, Road Construction Companies (RCCs), Bridge Construction Companies (BCCs), Drain Maintenance Companies (DMCs), and other functional platoons. The organisation also includes base workshops, store divisions, training and recruitment centers, and other staff.

The BRO is also in charge of maintenance of its road networks. In many places landslides, avalanches and snow block the routes and have to cleared as quickly as possible. BRO also employs the more than two lakh (200,000) local workers in the task.

An Internal Financial Advisor supports the BRO, performing the roles of Chief Accounts Officer and Internal Auditor. This system was introduced on 23 March 1995 to introduce efficiency and improve resource utilisation. The IFA secured ISO 9001 certification in December 1999.

Projects/Initiatives
The BRO undertakes projects in India and friendly countries. These projects typically include developing roads, bridges, and airfields in hostile environments shunned by private enterprises, whether due to security concerns related to hostilities, or because of environmental challenges.

Some of these projects carry out some of the development initiatives of the Indian government in foreign territories like Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Bhutan. These include the Delaram-Zaranj Highway in Afghanistan, completed and handed over to the Afghan government during 2008, and the restoration of the Farkhor and Ayni air bases in Tajikistan.

The BRO also played a vital role in reconstruction work in the aftermath of the devastating 2004 Tsunami in Tamil Nadu, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and the 2010 Ladakh flash floods.

Issues
The organisation employs labourers locally. No local labourer is deployed in the GREF for more than 179 days at a stretch, thus keeping the nature of their employment casual.