Short read: 704 BRO personnel, 575 casual paid labourers killed in last five years, MoD tells Parliament

Anyone who has visited India’s extensive Himalayan borders over the past five years would have witnessed the large-scale road building being undertaking by the aptly named Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in harsh climatic conditions at very high altitudes. What we didn’t know until we read Smruti Deshpande’s piece is the toll that is taking on our road builders – nearly 1300 people have died building India’s border roads over the past five years. That’s pretty much 1 death/day in what are remote locations usually far from the homes of these workers. So, why is the death rate so high?

Firstly, the BRO’s construction projects seem to be amongst the most difficult in the world: “The BRO is a key infrastructure development agency under the Ministry of Defence. It plays a vital role in constructing and maintaining road networks in India’s border areas. It has in recent years undertaken several challenging high-altitude infrastructure projects such as the Umling La Top Road, which is the world’s highest motorable road at an altitude of 19,024 feet in Ladakh. Atal Tunnel, Sela Tunnel, Khardung La and Chang La Pass roads are among other projects undertaken by the BRO.”

Secondly, the toll that hard labour at very altitude exerts is difficult to explain unless someone has tried to walk or run at high altitude – the lack of ambient oxygen makes you feel dizzy & nauseous very quickly. Forget about building a road at 19K feet, one needs to appreciate that most of us city folk would struggle to even walk briskly at 15K feet let alone put in hard labour in hazardous conditions at 19K feet.

Thirdly, basis what we have seen in India’s Himalayan border areas, good hospitals and healthcare is hard to provide. Hence, BRO seems to be obliged to make do with whatever it can pull together on its own: “…the minister informed Parliament that every BRO unit/work site is provisioned with adequate medical support like first aid, additional medical investigation room (AMIR), central medical investigation room (CMIR), and mobile medical health care team.”

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