ASSAM BORDER: India to mount 'smart fencing' today

India will mount a “smart fencing” comprising electronic surveillance along a difficult stretch of its border in Assam with Bangladesh today, the home ministry said yesterday.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh will inaugurate the Border Electronically Dominated QRT Interception Technique (BOLD-QIT) along a 61km area in Dhubri district where the Brahmaputra river enters Bangladesh under Comprehensive Integrated Border Management system on India-Bangladesh border, the ministry said in a statement.

“The 61km border area in Dhubri district consists of vast char lands and innumerable river channels, thus making border guarding in this area a daunting task especially during rainy season,” it said.

India’s Border Security Force is responsible for safeguarding of 4,096km long international border with Bangladesh.

“But at various places, it is not possible to erect border fence due to the geographical barriers,” the statement said, adding  "to overcome this problem, in the year 2017, Ministry of Home Affairs decided to go for technological solution besides the physical presence of manpower of BSF".

In January last year, the Information and Technology Wing of the BSF undertook the project and completed it in a record time with the technical support of various manufacturers and suppliers, according to the statement.

The BOLD-QIT is the project to install technical systems under the CIBMS which enables the BSF to equip India-Bangladesh borders with different kinds of sensors in unfenced riverine area of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, it said.

“Now, the entire span of River Brahmaputra has been covered with data network generated by microwave communication, optical fibre communication cables, DMR communication, day and night surveillance cameras and intrusion detection system,” the statement said.

These modern gadgets provide feeds to BSF control rooms on the border and enable BSF Quick Reaction Teams to thwart any possibility of illegal border crossing and crimes.

“The implementation of this project will not only help BSF to curb all type of cross border crimes but also provide respite to the troops from round the clock human surveillance,” said the statement.

Rajnath Singh inaugurated two BOLD-QIT “smart fencing” pilot projects along a five kilometre stretch each on India-Pakistan international border in Jammu in September last year.