Mumbai, India (BBN)-The Border Security Force (BSF) is set to install laser walls and smart sensors along the Indo-Bangla international border in West Bengal to plug the porous riverine and unmanned terrain in the area in order to keep to check infiltration and terrorism.
“Very soon laser walls and smart sensors will be installed at the Indo-Bangla border, especially in the porous riverine area and in areas that do not have proper fencing. It will be done on an urgent basis so that it becomes operational by the next year,” a BSF official said, reports The Indian Express.
The official added that the pilot project is likely to take off within a few months.
“The pilot project will start in a few months once we get the equipment and other things that are needed. The areas, where lasers and sensors will be placed, have already been identified,” another official said.
A team of technical experts will handle a pilot project for deploying technological solutions in riverine areas and the areas that lack fences.
“The smart sensors will be monitored through a satellite-based signal command system. They will have night and fog operability tools. The mechanism is — sensor blips and alerts border guards,” said the official.
The proposal submitted by BSF’s South Bengal frontier to the West Bengal government for land needed for erecting fences in a highly sensitive 81.7 km area has also been approved.
The state government has approved it and asked the district magistrates to procure land and hand it over to us, an official said.
The paramilitary force is using the Farheen laser wall technology at the Indo-Pakistan border and has reaped benefits through better management of the borders.
BSF DG K K Sharma and other top officials had recently toured the Indo-Bangla border area in Bengal and Tripura.
Sources in BSF said installing laser walls and remote sensors is part of Centre’s plan to keep a tight vigil at the Indo-Bangla border following inputs from intelligence agencies that terrorists and anti-national elements are exploiting the unfenced areas and riverine borders.
“The matter of laser walls and smart sensors in West Bengal was on the back burner. But it came up after the terror attack in Dhaka a few months ago as there were intelligence inputs that terrorists and anti-national elements were exploiting the unfenced areas and riverine borders,” an official said.
Of the 4,096 kilometer-long Indo-Bangladesh border, 2,216.7 is in West Bengal.
The decision to install laser walls in areas, where barbed wire fences could not be erected due to the treacherous terrain or marshy riverine topography was taken by the BSF two years ago.
Union Home Ministry and BSF expedited the installation and activation of laser walls on the western front after the Pathankot terror attack.
It was suspected that terrorists had breached the border in Bamiyal area in Punjab.
BBN/SK/AD