Thursday;July 21, 2016: Only 20 odd % of the tactically serious Indo-China border roads that were designed to be constructed by 2012 has been prepared, even as the time limit gets pushed to 2020 now.

As per the newest Ministry of Defence (MoD) data, 73 roads were identified under ICBR, out of which 61 had been entrusted to Border Roads Organisation (BRO) with a length of 3417 km.

The project was cleared by the UPA government in 2006-07 has to be completed till 2012 but it delayed and now it should be completed till 2020. The project was cleared by the UPA government in 2006-07.

Soon after coming to the power in 2014, the NDA government's Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) gave the general approval under section 2 of forest (conservation) Act, 1980 for diversion of forest land required for construction and widening of roads entrusted to BRO. This general approval is for the area falling within 100 kilometers aerial distance from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and for link roads between border roads in the area within 100 kilometer aerial distance from the LAC and national highways or state highways . This means that the projects do not fall under the purview of Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006 which mandates a statutory public hearing by the respective district collectors.

On Tuesday, the Defence minister Manohar Parrikar told Parliament that, “ the government has allowed BRO to outsource some of their work to expedite the construction and the states of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura have constituted Empowered Committees to resolve issues related to land acquisition and forest or wildlife clearances”.