The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has achieved another major feat in Arunachal Pradesh by building an ‘operationally critical’ road and another bridge in the remote Upper Subansiri district of the state, along the India–China border.
The construction work was undertaken by the BRO under its Project Arunank—an initiative to connect the inhospitable terrains of the state with the thoroughfares.
The strategic road, connecting Tama Chung Chung (TCC) with Bidak area in Upper Subansiri, was thrown open to public on January 30, chief engineer of Project Arunank B R Tripathi said. The inhospitable terrain, where rains lasted for eight to nine months, made the road construction work a challenge, he said.
The project had received a major boost in 2017 when a single span 200-feet bailey bridge over the turbulent Subansiri River was constructed. “The work on the critical road that began way back in 2009 was completed only recently. It is only because of persistent efforts of the engineers and the personnel of 23 Border Road Task Force (BRTF) that the project turned out to be a success,” he said.
A bailey bridge over Dadu Siko river, connecting Tama Chung Chung with Taksing road in the district, was also made operational recently. The bridge will be open to vehicular traffic even during the monsoons, Tripathi said.
“The bridge was constructed with a great difficulty with limited number of labourers and barely any road connectivity. The heavy machineries and earth moving equipment had to be airlifted to the site in IAF choppers,” the chief engineer explained. In exceptional cirumstances, manual labour was also employed to ferry the raw materials, he said.
Despite the huge challenges, the indomitable spirit and the high morale of the BRO personnel ensured that the work was completed with diligence, he added.