Well done, BRO
By K.L. Noatay

BORDER Roads Organisation, or BRO in short, is a civil engineering organisation of the Government of India. A kind of an independent corps, it is manned by the Corps of Engineers and the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF). The latter is an integral part of the armed forces.

During the past wars and conflicts thrust upon India by Pakistan, the BRO has put in tremendous effort in making the Indian forces victorious. Now, nearly all the big powers of the world have deprecated Pakistan for the Kargil conflict. Indian soldiers fought valiantly, even though intruders were well entrenched in bunkers made at strategically superior points, at hilltops in the Indian territory. In Operation Vijay, the BRO, too, put in a heroic effort. It valiantly assisted the Army in fighting the aggressors. All observers agree that had the BRO not immediately come forward in support of the Army troops, the latter may have found it somewhat time-consuming, if not difficult, to remove the intruders from the Indian territory.

The BRO had been assigned Beacon and Himank projects that entailed giving civil engineering support to the Army troops fighting the Pakistani intruders in active border areas north of Gurez and Zoji La passes. Projects Deepak and Sampark involved extending similar support in the area south of the jurisdiction of the two projects mentioned above.

Then to counter the enemy’s shelling in Kargil hills, the heavy Bofors guns had to be ferried across the snowbound Zoji La pass. This pass happens to be important, as there are numerous bottlenecks on the 434 km-long Srinagar-Leh road — National Highway No. 1A. The Dras and Kargil habitations fall on this highway. In olden times Zoji La used to open for traffic by July 15 only. Opening it earlier meant cutting and removing snow over a stretch of nearly 100 km of the road. And that is a Herculean task. However, ever since the BRO has taken over the highway, it has been clearing heavy snow with bulldozers and snow-cutters to make the highway usable. This clearance generally used to be completed byJune 15 every year. Fortunately, this year the BRO had cleared the Zoji La by April 20.

The Pakistanis had specially been targeting and shelling BRO camps and equipment like bulldozers and bridges at strategically sensitive points with the sole aim of paralysing the communication network of the defending Indian forces. Firing upon the BRO camps and equipment had begun as early as July 98.

On escalation of the conflict on May 6, the strength of the Army troops and the artillery equipment in the sector were found to be inadequate. More troops as well as guns were needed. They naturally had to move from Srinagar garrison via Zoji La. Moreover, the heavy Bofors guns needed a wide road for their smooth manoeuvring on steep bends.

Residents of Kaksar, Dras and Kargil, working as labourers for the BRO, got scared of the Pakistani shelling and deserted the work. Therefore, the few GREF Pioneers posted in the area got on to the job zealously, working day and night. They chose the night hours to work, in order to avoid getting hit by Pakistani gunners. GREF devoted extra hours to make the road adequately wide and fit for the Bofors guns. Dozer operators, as well as motor transport drivers of the BRO went out of their way to help their Grenadier brethren in positioning the heavy guns at strategic locations. More BRO troops were withdrawn from other projects and moved to vulnerable points. Simultaneously, 1300 young labourers were specially brought in from Dumka (Bihar) to work on defence commitments as casual paid labourers (CPLs). The teams so formed worked feverishly to repair the highway, link roads, helipads and advance landing grounds damaged by the enemy shelling from time to time. They also made alternate roads through comparatively safer areas. A number of Bailey bridges were also made wherever the strategy of Indian defence so dictated.

While the personnel of Beacon and Himank projects worked under direct Pakistani shelling, those of Deepak and Sampark projects worked day and night to keep the new alternate Manali-Sarchu-Leh route and also the old Pathankot-Udhampur-Jammu-Srinagar route (National Highway 1A) open for traffic round-the-clock, especially for military convoys. Project Deepak opened the Rohtang and Baralacha passes by the third week of May.

Seeing the GREF personnel and Bihari CPLs going ahead with their task fearlessly, despite the Pakistani shelling, the local labourers also reported back on duty.

The BRO chief engineers and Commanders regularly visited action areas to boost the morale of their personnel. The Director General, Border Roads, toured the area by road. He started from Rohtang Pass, drove past Baralacha, Longlacha and Taklangla passes to reach Leh. He then went to the Kargil-Dras sector by road — at the height of the conflict during first week of July.

Despite all the precautions taken by the BRO authorities against occurrence of casualties, one overseer, one motor driver and four CPLs were killed and 10 CPLs were injured in shelling in Kargil and Siachin sectors.

Whereas the GREF has been declared an integral part of the armed forces, it does not get essential facilities and concessions given to their regular Army counterparts.

There are a large number of anomalies in the pay package given to GREF personnel as compared to what has been offered to other Central government employees by the Fifth Pay Commission.

The dependants of BRO CPLs killed in the Pakistani shelling are also not being offered the special grants being extended to the next of kin of the regular Army troops killed in the operation.

During Operation Vijay, six CPLs of the BRO lost their lives on getting afflicted by pulmonary oedema. But this disease is not covered under the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923. The case deserves sympathetic consideration by the legislature as well as the accounts experts.

The above issues apart, the BRO, the youngest wing of the armed forces, has come out with honours in Operation Vijay.