NEW ‘STEEL FENCE’ ALONG PAK BORDER

SHORT

New Delhi, Jan. 10: India is erecting a new non-cut ‘steel fence’ to plug vulnerable and infiltration-prone patches along its sensitive border with Pakistan and Bangladesh, officials said on Friday.

They said the single-row fence, with loops of concertina wires on top, is being erected at a 60-km border stretch in near Amritsar in Punjab.

A ‘pilot project’ of this new fence is also being tested at a 7km stretch in Assam’s Silchar, along India’s border with Bangladesh and is being analysed by the BSF, they said.

This fence will cost about ` 2 crore for a kilometre, official sources said.

Based on the feedback of these projects, new fence will be erected at more places where either the old one has worn out, or there was no fence owing to geographical challenges.

Sources informed that the home ministry has also advanced a technology-based project of deploying ‘laser fences’ along these two borders, to five years as compared to the earlier 10-year deadline.