New Delhi has set December 2020 deadline to complete the fencing of porous India-Bangla border.
The union home ministry has set the deadline after around 2803.013 km has already been sealed.
“The remaining 169.64 km will be sealed by December 2020,” said minister of state for home Nityananda Rai in the Parliament this week.
He said that a total area of 3326.14 km has been sanctioned for fencing.
The Indo-Bangla border is of 4096 km in length.
“Illegal migrants, as well as the anti-India activists, take advantage of the porous border to sneak into the country,” said a senior home ministry official.
India’s land borders are characterized by deserts, mountains, forests and riverine terrain.
“Government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to contain cross-border infiltration which inter-alia includes the deployment of Border Guarding Forces along the International Borders, erection of border fencing & floodlighting, effective domination of the borders by patrolling, laying Nakas, manning observation posts along the borders,” said Rai.
He said that vulnerability mapping of Border Out Posts (BOPs), deployment of surveillance equipment, strengthening of the intelligence network, an anti-tunnelling exercise in vulnerable areas and deployment of technological solutions in non-feasible areas like riverine gaps, etc are also being taken out along the border areas.