Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday inaugurated two centres of excellence established by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) at Seema Sadak Bhawan in New Delhi. At the event, Mr. Singh also flagged off the first-ever solo women motorcycle expedition by Kanchan Ugursandi to Umling La Pass, Ladakh and back.
“These centres have been established to achieve excellence in road safety as well as foster growth in construction of roads, bridges, air fields and tunnels,” a Defence Ministry statement said.
The Centre of Excellence for Road Safety and Awareness (CoERSA) aims to create awareness about road safety through analysis sharing of road accidents and suggesting methods to save precious lives. “The Centre of Excellence for Roads, Bridges, Air Fields and Tunnels (CoERBAT) focuses on institutionalising the knowledge gained over the years in development of almost 60,000 kilometres of roads, 56,000 metres of bridges, 19 airfields and four tunnels in the eastern and north-western part of the country,” the statement said.
‘A silent pandemic’
Terming road accidents a silent pandemic that claimed approximately 1.5 lakh lives every year, Mr. Singh said the government had taken a number of initiatives such as a national road safety policy, the motor vehicle act 2020 and identification of black spots on national highways to tackle the problem. The setting up of these Centres was another step in that direction, he pointed out.
Several measures have been taken for the development of BRO. These include an increase in its budget , approval of special high-altitude clothing for the personnel as well as cadre review to boost the morale of its personnel.
During the event, Mr. Singh also launched four software to improve the work efficiency of BRO personnel, human resource management, recruitment management, enrolment and works management.
