By Sujit Chakraborty
Agartala, March 3 (IANS) After the western front, laser walls and other hi-tech surveillance systems would be put in place in India’s eastern border with Bangladesh to bolster security, top BSF official said.
“Under the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS), laser walls, sensors, closed circuit television, high-power camera among other hi-tech surveillance system would be introduced along India-Bangladesh borders,” Hemant Kumar Lohia, who till recently was the Inspector General of BSF’s Tripura Frontier and is currently with the Eastern Command of the force in Kolkata, told IANS
“The signals from the various elements of the CIBMS would reach a Unified Command and Control Centre to enable the BSF monitor the border on real-time basis. The CIBMS enables round-the-clock surveillance in different weather conditions or even in duststorms, fog or rain,” Lohia added.
Lohia said that the CIBMS, also known as a virtual fence, would create an invisible electronic barrier on land, water and in the air.
“The CIBMS is designed to guard stretches where physical surveillance is extremely hard either due to inhospitable terrain or riverine stretches,” he pointed out.
“Initially, the system would be set up in critical areas of Assam’s Dhubri district and some portion of Tripura,” he said, adding this would help control infiltration and other incidents on the border.
Lohia said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had on September 17 last year launched two pilot projects of the CIBMS, each covering a 5.5 km stretch along the India-Pakistan border in Jammu.
The use of high-tech solutions for border security is being considered by the Home Ministry since 2012. The BSF had also submitted a detailed report on CIBMS to the ministry.
“But after the discovery of several cross-border tunnels on the western frontier, the ministry swiftly approved two pilot projects,” another BSF officer told IANS, declining to be quoted as he is not authorised to speak to the media.
According to the officer, BSF troopers, during their patrolling, now use night vision goggles, weapon sights and hand-held searchlights, among other equipment.
“With the increase of the cross-border threats, the BSF was forced to embark on a high-tech modernisation process,” the officer pointed out.
According to the official, besides employing high-tech technologies, the BSF continues to deploy its sniffer dogs for surveillance.
BSF sources say 89 of its battalions have been posted along the country’s eastern frontier and 78 battalions along the western frontier.
(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)
