BhutanNew Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) Laser fence will be installed atcertain points along India's open borders with Nepal andBhutan to prevent infiltration of terror modules andsmuggling, officials said here today.
Giving details, Inspector General (Operations) of theborder guarding force Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), A K Singh,said that as a pilot project, laser fence would be put up atone location each along the 1,751-km Indo-Nepal and 699-kmIndo-Bhutan boundaries.
The laser fences will be deployed in areas that are"uninhabited" due to difficult geographical terrain and areprone to smuggling and other terror activities.
"We are putting up pilot projects (of laser fencing) attwo different places to know whether it will have any effecton the open border. The purpose is to secure those areas whichhave no habitation and are used by insurgents and criminals.
"We are testing if such places can be fenced by usinglaser fencing...this project, however, is in a very initialphase," Singh told reporters here.
SSB Director General Rajni Kant Mishra, while interactingwith journalists on the occasion of the force's 54th RaisingDay, explained the rationale of having a technology-basedfence, a move made for the first time along these borderswhich are open and free for movement.
"Sometimes it is not possible to guard a border becauseof the terrain is so...in such areas technology comes to thehelp.
"Laser fence is one of the technology solutions that weare looking at from the point of view of ingress of criminalson these border," Mishra said.
He said there was no plan to erect permanent fence onthese two frontiers except for a 35-km stretch along theIndo-Bhutan border in Assam which was erected at the requestof the neighbouring government. PTI NES SKLSMN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.