[ Archana Sood ]
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is a premier organisation evolved to construct roads, bridges, tunnels, airfields, and infrastructure in remote, inaccessible, high-altitude, heavy precipitation and permafrost areas.
The BRO has been rendering yeoman service to the nation for more than six decades. The organisation has to its credit some of the most challenging roads, highest as well as longest bridges and state-of-the-art airfields and tunnels in the most difficult terrain across the country.
As India celebrates Aazadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, it also calls for celebrating the years of ongoing effort of our nation to empower our women, who are now the frontrunners in nation-building and representatives of our strong national character, as it endeavors to put them on a higher pedestal of equality and freedom.
The BRO has a large number of women in its workforce over the years and the organisation encourages women to participate in executing the BRO’s role of nation-building by empowering them with the tools of authority, responsibility and respect. They have been time and again proving that gender is not a hindrance if one has the will and passion.
Col Ponung Doming is one such soldier the BRO is proud of.
Col Doming has become the first woman officer from Arunachal Pradesh to be promoted to the rank of colonel in the Indian Army. She is also the first woman officer to command the world’s highest Border Roads Task Force (BRTF), above 15,000 ft, in Ladakh, where she will be handling various strategically important BRO projects along the northern borders. She is not only the first woman officer from Arunachal in the Indian Army but also the first colonel ranked officer from the Northeast.
Col Doming hails from Pasighat in East Siang district. Born to Olom Doming and Jimmi Dai Doming, Col Doming pursued her studies at the Daying Ering Government Higher Secondary School and the IGJ Government Higher Secondary School in Pasighat. She did her civil engineering from the Walchand College of Engineering in Maharashtra, and was commissioned into the Indian Army as a lieutenant in 2008. She is a postgraduate in structures, and a gold medallist in BE (civil) and MTech courses. The officer has served in the United Nations Peace Keeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa. She has tenanted various instructional appointments in Army training institutes and served in operational areas in J&K and Manipur.
Col Doming is not only an inspiration to the girls of Arunachal but a source of motivation and encouragement for the women of the nation. She is a role model to people who dream big and have the courage to follow and achieve their dreams in unchartered territories.
As an organisation, it is a constant endeavour to provide equal and fair opportunities to all personnel, irrespective of gender bias, caste or creed, so that no deserving leader is left out in giving his or her utmost towards the development of the nation. The BRO will always remain a leader in strengthening women to lead from the front. (Colonel Archana Sood is Commander, 756 BRTF, Ziro.)
