Which of the following statements about the Border Roads Organization (BRO) is/are correct? 1. BRO is concerned with the construction and maintenance of roads in strategically sensitive areas. 2. BRO undertakes snow clearance in high altitude areas. Select the correct answer using the code given below.

Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. Statement 1 is the Border Roads Organisation's founding purpose. Raised on 7 May 1960 and now under the Ministry of Defence, it builds and maintains the road network in India's border regions, and it works in friendly neighbouring countries as well — the Delaram to Zaranj highway in Afghanistan and road work in Bhutan and Myanmar are its projects. Statement 2 describes work it is equally known for. Maintenance in high mountains means keeping the road open through winter, so the organisation clears snow on routes such as the Srinagar to Leh highway over Zoji La and the Manali to Leh road over Rohtang, and the reopening dates it announces each spring are followed closely in Ladakh and Lahaul. Both statements stand, so the answer is both.

• (a)1 only — It drops statement 2, but snow clearance is part of what maintaining a high-altitude road means, and the organisation carries it out every year on the passes into Ladakh and Lahaul.
• (b)2 only — It drops statement 1, which is the organisation's core mandate. Building and maintaining roads in strategically sensitive border areas is the reason it exists.
• (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejecting both statements leaves the organisation with no function at all, which cannot be right for a body that built the Atal Tunnel and keeps the Ladakh highways open.

The Border Roads Organisation is a road construction agency raised in 1960 to develop infrastructure along India's northern and north-eastern frontiers, where terrain and climate make ordinary contracting impractical. It is staffed by officers of the Border Roads Engineering Service and personnel from the General Reserve Engineer Force, works through project-level formations with names such as Beacon, Himank, Deepak and Vartak, and its output includes roads, bridges, tunnels, causeways, helipads and airfields.

Both statements here are the kind that sound like they might be someone else's job, which is where the doubt comes from. Snow clearance in particular feels like a State public works or disaster management task, and in the plains it would be. In the high Himalaya the road and its clearance are inseparable, because a pass that is not cleared is not a road, and the same agency that cut the alignment is the only one with the plant and the presence at that altitude to reopen it. Anchoring to the 2022 exam, the organisation's most visible recent achievement was the Atal Tunnel below Rohtang, opened in October 2020, which removed the Rohtang crossing from the Manali to Leh route altogether and gave Lahaul road access through the winter. Since the exam it has completed the Sela tunnel on the road to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, opened in March 2024.

• The Border Roads Organisation was raised on 7 May 1960 and functions under the Ministry of Defence.
• It builds and maintains roads, bridges, tunnels and airfields in border and strategically sensitive areas.
• It has executed projects abroad, including the Delaram to Zaranj highway in Afghanistan and road work in Bhutan and Myanmar.
• Annual snow clearance and the reopening of passes such as Zoji La and Rohtang are among its regular tasks.
• The Atal Tunnel below Rohtang, about nine kilometres long, was built by the organisation and opened in October 2020.

• Assuming snow clearance belongs to a State agency. On border roads at altitude it is part of maintenance and falls to the same organisation.
• Placing the organisation under the transport ministry. It functions under the Ministry of Defence.
• Thinking it works only inside India. It has built roads in Afghanistan, Bhutan and Myanmar.

As a statement pair on the organisation's functions, as which ministry it comes under, or through a named project such as the Atal Tunnel.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Border Roads Organisation functions under which ministry?

  • (a)Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
  • (b)Ministry of Defence
  • (c)Ministry of Home Affairs
  • (d)Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region

  Answer(b) Ministry of Defence — the organisation was raised in 1960 and its border road work is treated as a defence task.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Atal Tunnel, opened in 2020, passes below which mountain pass?

  • (a)Zoji La
  • (b)Rohtang
  • (c)Bara Lacha La
  • (d)Nathu La

  Answer(b) Rohtang — the tunnel gives Lahaul all-weather access on the Manali to Leh road.