Govt accepts Shekatkar recommendations to boost border roads projects

News:The Government of India has accepted and implemented three important recommendations relating to border infrastructure made by the Shekatkar Committee.

Facts:

• The Shekatkar Committee was set up by the Government of India to recommend measures on enhancing Combat Capability and Rebalancing Defence Expenditure.

Key Recommendations accepted and under implementation:

• Speeding up road construction and outsourcing road construction work beyond optimal capacity of the Border Roads Organisation(BRO).
• Mandatory to adopt Engineering Procurement Contract(EPC) mode for execution of all works costing more than Rs 100 crore.
• Delegating enhanced procurement powers from Rs 7.5 crore to Rs 100 crore to BRO for domestic and foreign procurements.
• Introducing advanced new technologies to speed up construction such as precision blasting, use of geo-textiles for soil stabilisation using cementitious base for pavements and plastic coated aggregates for surfacing.

Other Key Recommendations:

• India’s defence budget should be in the range of 2.5 to 3% of the GDP.
• A Joint Services War College for training middle-level officers should be established.
• The Military Intelligence School at Pune should be converted to a tri-service intelligence training establishment.