BRO to come under sole control of Defence Ministry

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said that the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), the country’s strategic road construction agency, will be brought under the Defence Ministry by the next budget.

“BRO has been de-linked from Ministry of Surface Transport. It will entirely be defence controlled and defence financed. We are considering transferring more than 6,000-7000 km of roads to National Highways,” Parrikar said. “BRO has dual command — Ministry of Surface Transport was their administrative department and defence was there (sic)…Money would be an issue because of (having) two masters. We are getting it out of Ministry of Surface Transport…So next budget, it will be under Defence Ministry,” Parrikar said Tuesday.

Sources said the Ministry of Surface Transport is more than relieved to let BRO be moved completely to MoD. “It is a very good development. The two ministers spoke about this during their recent meeting. But the proposal has been under consideration for over a year-and-a-half. It was after former PM Manmohan Singh’s visit to the northeast last year that the concept was floated. Amongst two aspects that emerged were trimming down the work of Surface Transport Ministry, the second was creation of a separate company — National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation — which has been created,” said an official from the Ministry.