CAG asks MHA to expedite the Indo-Nepal Border Road Project

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to augment the efforts for ensuring the speedy completion of India-Nepal strategic roads for the effective management of the Indo-Nepal border by the border guarding forces along with its benefits to the general population in the bordering areas. The 23rd audit report of the CAG on the Indo-Nepal Border Road Project that had been recently submitted to Parliament stated that under the project, the construction of the Indo-Nepal border (INB) roads has a total length of 1377 km in three distinct states- Uttar Pradesh (640 km), Bihar (564 km), and Uttarakhand (173 km), had been taken up in November 2010 with the objective of constructing roads having strategic importance by the Indo-Nepal border to be completed by March 2016. The main aim of the project was to provide better connectivity to the Border Out Posts (BOPs) to fulfill the requirements of the border population along with the better implementation of development initiatives in those areas. This project aimed at facilitating faster mobility of the 'Sashastra Seema Bal' (SSB) which is the Indo-Nepal border guarding force to dominate the sensitive border more effectively. The audit report shed light on critical lacunae in this project’s conceptualisation stage which include planning the road alignment away from the border. The other was the non-integration of project design with the Border Out Posts (BOPs) connectivity of the SSB with the border roads’ main alignment and the non-inclusion of link roads as an integral component of this road project. Image Source