India will test its Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System in October in an attempt to stop cross-border infiltration, said a senior home ministry official seeking anonymity. This will be the third trial of the Rs 20,000-crore project after technology mismatches stalled two previous attempts, another government official said. “The project will be tested out in October this year. It will use all possible technologies available to us—radar, sonar, laser and drones—to monitor movements and sounds along the international border. If this kind of fencing is successful, it will be implemented along the Indo-Pakistan (border) and all other border areas as well,” the official cited above said, on condition of anonymity.
Following the attack on the Pathankot air base in January 2016, the Home Ministry had formulated the project to re-assess the existing mechanism of border security. A senior government official involved in the project said the Border Security Force (BSF) had bought a 21-km border fence from Israel, after receiving funds from the Home Ministry. “If the implementation of the first 21-km fencing is deemed a success in October, then the fencing will be laid out in batches of 21km each along the entire border,” the government official added.
