‘Smart’ fence along Pak, Bangla border: Rajnath Singh

Srinagar: 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-the-art “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 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-of-the-art 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.

The Home Minister who was being flanked by Union Minister of state for PMO, Jitendra Singh, and Director General of the BSF, K. K. Sharma, during the briefing said, “As you know that in order to ensure the safety and integrity of the country it is but imperative to keep its borders secure. Though the BSF jawans and those from the Army and other security forces do discharge the duty of defending our borders routinely but for strengthening further the security of our borders we have launched this new pilot project.”

The HM officials said that the project is based on integrated border management system and this virtual fence would be first of its kind initiative in India. They added that the CIBMS is designed to guard stretches where physical surveillance is not possible either due to inhospitable terrain or riverine borders.

Mr. Singh said, “I think after introducing the CIBMS our borders will be defended more effectively. Already our jawans are defending our borders in the face of all kind of odds be it fog, obscurity or storms and, when you talk about India-Pakistan borders, they are sometimes fired upon as well which has resulting into the casualties among our BSF jawans.”

He added that there was no doubt that the BSF has been giving befitting reply to the Pakistani firing but after the full implementation of the CIBMS it will be much easier for it to defend the border against infiltration and other unlawful activities. “We have decided to introduce this technology along the 2,026 kilometre stretch of the borders we consider as vulnerable,” the Home Minister said.

The Home Minister said that this would not only minimize the casualties among the BSF personnel but will also help in reducing the stress they suffer while defending the borders. “The dependence on physical patrolling will be reduced considerably and, as I said, this is a pilot project which will be monitored closely and the system will be improved further on the basis of the feedback we receive.”