RAIPUR: The Border Roads Organization (BRO) has stepped into dreaded Maoist commander Hidma’s den in Bastar division to build roads that no civilian contractor dared take up. BRO is known for its expertise in building roads in treacherous, mountainous regions of Ladakh and the North-East, and Chhattisgarh is perhaps the only Maoist-affected state where it has been deployed, said an officer. BRO teams started work in a remote part of Bijapur on Monday.
In 2004-06, during a period of intense Maoist violence, BRO had constructed a 100km road between Jagdalpur and Geedam in Dantewada. It’s still the best in Bastar. This time, the assignment has taken the road specialists to the most volatile hotbed of Maoist insurgency in Bastar. BRO will build two roads, from Hidma’s Puwarti village to Silger, and from Tarrem to Kondapalli.
Puwarti is Hidma’s native village and barely 2km from Tekulguda where 23 security personnel were killed in a Maoist ambush in April 2021. And Silger was the site of intense protests after three villagers were killed in police firing on May 17, 2021.
Local contractors were too scared to take up projects in these areas and multiple tenders got no response. According to sources, the Union home minister intervened and BRO was given the task.
Officials are not sharing details of the routes but said that Tarrem and Kondapalli road will be 18km long and the one from Silger to Puwarti is planned to be 11km. The Tarrem-Kondapalli stretch is expected to be completed by June 2025 and will cost around Rs 40 crore. “This is another step towards achieving the target of Union home minister Amit Shah‘s vow to eliminate Maoists by March 2026,” Bastar range IG P Sundarraj said.
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