DG Border Roads Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhry invokes PM Modi’s ‘Kartavya Kaal’, ‘Vishwa Guru’ slogans to project future plans

Lt Gen Chaudhary said that soon the world’s highest 3D printing construction project will be undertaken in Leh. “A museum highlighting the achievements of BRO in the past 63 years will come up in Leh and this project will be undertaken by the BRO in association with Larson and Tubro (L&T),” he said.

“We wanted to highlight that India is the front-runner for this technology. It will not take less than 18 months to put up a complex like this in conventional methods. Now this will come up in only nine months and will be finished by December-end. It is a major breakthrough in the building construction domain,” he said.

Stating that India was showing the way to the world, Lt Gen Chaudhary said PM Modi’s slogans of ‘Amrit Kaal’, ‘Kartvaya Kaal’ and the recently concluded G20 conference’s theme of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’were the primary force movers to put India as Vishwa Guru.

“We are showing the way. Two years back we built the world’s highest motorable road at 19,000 feet in Demchok. On August 15, nearly 40 days ago, we started a tunnel at Hanle in Ladakh at 15,000 feet. All roads being built in Ladakh are higher in height than base camps of Mount Everest,” he said.

Lt Gen Chaudhary added that the previous government was chary of building roads close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) because there was a perception that China may use these roads to attack India.

“This was said by the then Defence Minister A K Antony in 2008. But in present government the focus has changed. In the last three years we have completed four tunnels, 10 are in progress and eight more are in advance planning stage,” he said.

He added that the infrastructure which is coming up is beneficial for local people living in remote areas as it provides crucial connectivity to them.

“Around 300 BRO projects worth Rs 8,000 crore were completed during the last few years. The Central Government doubled the budget for BRO projects for the current financial year,” Lt Gen Chaudhary mentioned.

The facility coming up in Chandigarh hosts six building blocks out of which five are constructed using 3D printing technology and one block makes use of precast technology.

The 3D printing technology along with solar studies and building simulations is used to create the climate sensitive built form. The result is a 180mm thick wall and the 3D printable concrete was completely developed, tailor-made to suit Chandigarh’s climatic conditions, informed BRO officials.