China hasn't built any road in Indian territory: Parrikar

Maintaining that fund constraints will not affect the work of Border Roads Organisation (BRO), Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday asserted that China has not constructed any road in Indian territory.

"I can say, as per my knowledge, that during the last two years no road has been constructed by the Chinese in our area," Parrikar told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour.

Answering supplementary questions, including from Gaurav Gogoi (Congress), he said budgetary issues have not hampered any BRO work.

"We are working. I do not think money will be a bottleneck point. In fact, the work speed has increased, and if money is required, we will go with the supplementary budget," the minister said.

Parrikar said 73 roads have been identified as strategic Sino-India border roads, of which 61 with a total length of 3,417 km have been entrusted to the BRO.

Of these, 22 roads totalling 707.24 km, have been completed and as per the revised schedule, five roads will be completed this year, eight in 2017, 12 in 2018, eight in 2019 and six in 2020.

Parrikar said some delays in forest and wildlife areas was due to difficulty in availability of construction material and delay in land acquisitions.

Gogoi alleged delays in the BRO work in the northeastern region due to "large gap" between budgetary expectation and budgetary sanctions.

--IANS

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