Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 27

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has relocated the Headquarters of the Additional Directorate General, North-West, to Chandigarh from New Delhi. The headquarters is responsible for all border roads and associated projects in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.The move has been undertaken to augment infrastructure development in the western and north-western border regions and to have better coordination with state governments, Army and other stakeholder agencies. The headquarters began functioning from Chandigarh a few days ago.PK Mahajan, a highly experienced officer, has been appointed the first Additional Director General (ADG) at Chandigarh. He was the first Chief Engineer of BRO’s Rohtang Tunnel project and had played a key role in its conceptualisation, planning and execution. The BRO has two ADGs, the other one responsible for road infrastructure along the eastern borders. The ADG North-West has nine BRO projects under its jurisdiction in the aforementioned states, these being Beacon, Chetak, Deepak, Himank, Hirak, Rohtang, Sampark, Shivalik and Vijayank, which cover the deserts as well as some of the highest passes in the world like Khardung La, Chang La and Baralacha La.Mahajan said with changes in the BRO set up, the pace of road construction as well as inter-departmental coordination is expected to improve. He added that efforts were underway not only to provide road connectivity to the remotest places on the borders but also to ensure that the lines of communication in harsh terrain and inclement weather conditions remain open.