‘ Smart’ fence along Pak, Bangla border: Rajnath

Home minister flags off 2 pilot projects

Taking cue from Israeli military technology, India on Monday began securing over 2,600 kilometre “vulnerable” stretches of its borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh by laying along these a start- of- theart “smart” fencing.

This will help hugely towards preventing infiltration and other unlawful activities along these borders, Union home minister Rajnath Singh told reporters in Jammu after e- inaugurating two pilot projects of the “smart” border fencing along the India- Pakistan border built under the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System ( CIBMS) programme.

“I saw this technology in use during my visit to Israel. On my return to India we had threadbare discussions on this. We decided to adopt this technology and subsequently the work on it began,” he said.

Mr Singh asserted, “It is our resolve to make the security of our borders foolproof. We launched two pilot projects here

It is our resolve to make the security of our borders foolproof... We have planned to cover about 60 km of the border in Assam under the programme in November. — Rajnath Singh, Home minister

today. We have planned to cover about 60 kilometres of the border in similar fashion in Assam under the programme in November”. He added, “It is Prime Minister’s birthday today and on this occasion I dedicate this project to our valiant soldiers who defend our borders.”

The BSF officials said that the pilot phase of two projects, each covering a 5.5 km border stretch along the International Border ( IB) in Jammu, is a first- of- a- kind high- tech surveillance system that will create an invisible electronic barrier on land, water and even in air and underground, helping it detect and foil infiltration bids in the most difficult terrains.

They added that the CIBMS involves deployment of a range of state- oftheart surveillance technologies — thermal imagers, infra- red and laser- based intruder alarms that form an invisible land fence, aerostats for aerial surveillance, unattended ground sensors that can help detect intrusion bids through tunnels, radars, sonar systems to secure riverine borders, fibre- optic sensors and a command and control system that shall receive data from all surveillance device in real time.

Mr Singh said that it was a historic day not only for the ministry he is heading but for entire nation. The ministry officials had earlier said that the programme is a more robust border management system which is seamlessly integrating modern technology with human resource.