Telangana Government Appoints Lt Gen Harpal Singh as Irrigation Adviser

Hyderabad: The government on Thursday appointed Lt. Gen. Harpal Singh (retd), former engineer-in-chief (ENC) of the Indian Army, and Director General of Border Roads Organisation (BRO), as an honorary adviser for the irrigation department.

Lt. Gen. Singh, according to a news release from the department, has over 40 years of experience in the military, specialising in creating strategic infrastructure for the defence forces. He brings with him extensive experience in guiding large civil infrastructure projects with expertise in deployment of advanced technology and solutions, the department said.

As Director General of the BRO and as ENC of the Indian Army, Lt. Gen. Singh was instrumental in development of strategic tunnels and many other underground infrastructure assets for the defence forces, the release said.

Lt. Gen. Singh’s expertise in project work, and troubleshooting will help Telangana accelerate work on numerous irrigation tunnels, according to irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy.

Lt. Gen. Singh is the second official from the defence sector to join the irrigation department in recent days. Earlier, Col. Parikshit Mehra (retd) from the BRO, a tunneling expert, joined the department on deputation, and bringing them on board is being viewed as resurgence in the department with impetus on modern methods, technology absorption and capability building.

The release said Lt. Gen. Singh was a critical force behind completion of Atal tunnel under Rohtang Pass, progress of work on the Theing tunnel in Sikkim, Sela and Nechiphu tunnels in Arunachal Pradesh among several others in the Himalayan region.

He has been a president of the International Road Federation, vice-chairman of the Institution of Civil Engineers (India), and chairman of the Indian Institute of Bridge Engineers.