New Delhi, May 3: The Taliban threat has forced the Indian military outfit, the Border Roads Organisation, to redeploy its personnel building a crucial link in Afghanistan.
A BRO worker, Maniappan Raman Kutty, was killed in November 2005 and a note pinned to his body warned Indians and asked them to get out of Afghanistan. But the BRO will continue with the project despite the threats, its director general, Lieutenant General K.S. Rao, said here today.
A team of Indian officials visited Afghanistan last week after the abduction and killing of Indian telecom engineer K. Suryanarayana who was engaged by a West Asian company for a mobile network.
Of all the Indian government-sponsored projects in Afghanistan, the threat perception is highest for the Zaranj-Delaram link that will connect the Iranian port of Chabahar to a circular highway.
The project, the largest in Afghanistan that India is sponsoring, is in remote Nimroze province in Afghanistan’s southwest. It is also a strategic investment by India because Pakistan denies transit rights for Indian personnel and goods.
Rao said since Maniappan was killed, the BRO has enhanced the security personnel of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police from 40 to 218. A few more are likely to go.
Additionally, 747 local security guards have been recruited. The security responsibility is shared also by the state but the Centre has to bear the costs.
A time overrun on the project ? initially slated to be completed by December 2007 ? was inevitable because the BRO personnel were now concentrated at a single site for reasons of security.
There are 300 BRO personnel engaged in road building. Although the ration of security personnel to BRO staffers is nearly 3:1, General Rao said the project was still fraught with risks. Before Maniappan’s killing, the BRO had taken up work on several stretches of the road but now they were taking up one stretch at a time.
“I have personally visited the place and talked to local leaders, warlords and the governor and have been assured of local support. But there will always be disgruntled elements. It is possible that there may be some incidents but we are reasonably well organised,” he said.
The remoteness of Nimroze and the extremes of climate ? where summer temperatures can cross 50 degrees Celsius ? was making work difficult. Twice in the past, the Russians (during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan) and the Afghan regime in Kabul itself had taken up the project only to abandon it.
The BRO was not taking up any more road building projects overseas immediately. However, it was engaged in rebuilding the runway for an airbase in Tajikistan, a development that has led to speculation over the possible posting of Indian military assets in Central Asia.
General Rao said the BRO has also surveyed a 10-km stretch to connect Kargil with Skardu in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir across the Line of Control. This follows work by the BRO over the last year on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road that was being rebuilt after the October earthquake and was being converted into a double-lane highway.
General Rao said the northeast of the country was a focus area for the BRO now in line with the “look-east policy” advocated by the Prime Minister. A total of 492 kms of highways would be relaid or newly built in the first phase of this drive.
