The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) is understood to have cleared a home ministry proposal to raise its own construction force, on the lines of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), for undertaking construction of roads and bridges in the Maoist-affected areas.

Initially, the Indian Army will provide its officers from the Corps of Engineers to the new organisation, ministry sources said. The Corps is the backbone of BRO, which was raised in 1960 to build and maintain roads in the border areas.

The original proposal was to engage the BRO in the Maoist-affected areas but it was dropped after reviewing the big workload entrusted to it to construct a network of roads on the borders of China to match the all-weather roads on the other side, sources said.

They said the CCS noted very poor road communication network in the tribal areas in the grip of the Maoist ultras. Moreover, destroying roads to their strongholds is a key startegy of the Maoists. Responsibility of building roads in the states rests with their public works department (PWD) who mostly engage private contractors for the job.

The CCS noted that the Maoists not only extract money from the contractors to allow their machinery in the areas under their control but also prevent construction of any roads in the sensitive areas.

Since the state governments do not provide the needed police protection to the contractors to carry out works, the CCS felt the home ministry should have an organisation that undertakes construction of roads and bridges on its own, without engaging the contractors, the sources said, pointing out that such an organisation will have own security apparatus to take on the Maoists if they obstruct the construction.

The budget for the organisation will come from the funds allotted by the ministry to the state governments for development works in the Maoist-affected areas.

The organisation will be raised with the help of the officers of the Corps of Engineers with the BRO and engineers of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD). It will be headed by an army general.

The army is opposed to take over the anti-Maoist operations on the ground that its personnel are not trained for civilian duties of a police force. It is, however, not opposed to spare a sizeable number of engineers, both civilian and military, from BRO for the proposed organisations, the sources added.