BSC-C&C Joint Venture road construction company’s three employees were kidnapped in western Meghalaya, reportedly by the banned Garo National Liberation Army.

BSC is Hyderabad-based and C&C is Gurgaon-based company. The joint venture is implementing the 265-km-long stretch of road project at an estimated cost of Rs 1,494 crore to connect Shillong to Tura.

Around 12.30 p.m. on Saturday, an armed group of 10 waylaid the vehicle of the BSC-C&C JV, which was returning to Guwahati. At gunpoint they abducted three occupants. They had gone to the police station as their vehicle was involved in a minor accident and returning when the event happened, according to B. Seenaiah, Managing Director of the Hyderabad-based BSC.

He told Business Line that the employees were from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The company was implementing its first road project in Meghalaya.

Work was going on since the award of the contract 18 months ago and considerable progress was made. The employees abducted were Manoj Kumar, Deepak Kumar and A.K. Sharma.

BSC-C&C forged a partnership in 2001 and are major executors of road projects in Assam, Bihar and the North-East. Interestingly, two employees of the company were kidnapped in Afghanistan and released by Taliban group around 2003.

The Hyderabad-based company with a turnover over around Rs 1,500 crore and order-book of Rs 5,000 crore is mainly into roads, with some percentage of irrigation projects. The company is making efforts to get the kidnapped employees released and there is progress, said Seenaiah, without giving much detail.

> somsekhar.m@thehindu.co.in

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