BRO: OKSRT road to be fully operational by next year

ITANAGAR: Border Roads Organisation (BRO) commander Col Rahul Trivedi has informed that the broadening work on the Orang Kalaktang Shergaon Rupa Tenga (OKSRT) and the Balipara Bomdila Tawang (BBT) roads are on in full swing, and assured that the OKSRT road would be fully operational by next year.

He disclosed this during a meeting held yesterday at Bomdila in West Kameng district with the members of the West Kameng Indigenous People's Society (WKIPS) on the progress being made on the two roads, a press release said here today.

Trivedi has ordered the OKSRT road to be opened to traffic from 5 pm to 8 am and from 12 noon to 1 pm daily, keeping in view the problems faced by the route's commuters.

He further said that the direct road from Rupa to Jigaon would be opened by next month, which would shorten the road distance by about 17 km.

"No new road cutting work will be undertaken on BBT road unless the old ones are fully blacktopped," he added.

The people of West Kameng and Tawang districts had staged a dharna on September 1, last year at the BRO offices in Tenga, Bhalukpong, Sapper Camp and Kalaktang in West Kameng district, and in Tawang, Lumla, Khrimu and Jang in Tawang district to protest the alleged deplorable condition of the two routes.

This was followed by a total bandh in the two districts the next day.