Kolkata: Laser walls and smart sensors will be installed at the Indo-Bangla International Border (IB) in West Bengal to plug the porous riverine and unmanned terrain and keep a tight vigil 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 the 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 top BSF official said on the condition of anonymity.
According to BSF officials, a pilot project will take off within a few months in the Indo-Bangla riverine border area in West Bengal.
“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 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 of the force recently toured the Indo-Bangla border area in West Bengal and Tripura.
“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,” another official told this newspaper.
Of the 4,096 kilometer-long Indo-Bangladesh border, 2,216.7 is in West Bengal.
