BRO gearing up to build 102 bridges capable of carrying army's heaviest tanks near LAC: Report

Indian Army’s Border Roads Organisation (BRO) plans to build 102 bridges near the India-China border by March 2021. Lieutenant General Harpal Singh has said that 44 of these bridges were commissioned on October 12, which are in addition to the 10 bridges that were built earlier in 2020.

Of these 44 bridges, 10 are in Jammu and Kashmir, eight in Ladakh, two in Himachal Pradesh, four in Punjab, eight in Uttarakhand, eight in Arunachal Pradesh, and another four in Sikkim.

Thirty of these 44 bridges commissioned are located on the path leading to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh, reported the Hindustan Times.

“These bridges of various spans, constructed by BRO, range from 30 metres to 484 metres are of strategic importance and have been designed to facilitate movement of heavy civil and military traffic in border areas,” Lieutenant General Harpal Singh said.

The 102 bridges that the BRO is building are class 70 bridges that are specially designed to withstand the weight of some of India’s heaviest tanks. India’s heaviest battle tank Arjun and the T-90 Bhishma tanks -- that were mobilised in the East Ladakh sector after the skirmishes with the People’s Liberation Army -- weigh about 60 tonnes and 45 tonnes, respectively.

The bridges being built by the Indian Army’s BRO are expected to improve connectivity and will enable the armed forces to respond quickly to any misadventure along the LAC.

The BRO usually builds around 50 bridges annually, which was more than doubled by the government to 102 this year.