BRO to fence major portion of India-Myanmar border

The Ministry of Home Affairs has identified around 1,700 km of fencing which needs to be done.

Guwahati: The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) will fence a major portion of the strategic India-Myanmar border, and a 10-km stretch in Manipur has already been covered, a senior official said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has identified around 1,700 km of fencing that needs to be done, BRO’s Additional Director General (East) PKH Singh said.

The organisation has already finished fencing 10 km along the border in Manipur’s Moreh, which was handed over to the Assam Rifles, Singh told PTI in an interview.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently said the Centre has decided that the India-Myanmar border will be protected by barbed fencing like the India-Bangladesh border, and the government was rethinking the free movement agreement with Myanmar.

Four Indian states – Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram – share a 1,643-km border with Myanmar.

Singh said that the next 80-km stretch in Manipur has also been identified and the detailed project report (DPR) submitted to the ministry.

Fencing the remaining 250 km, along with its approach roads, is in the planning stage with the DPR under preparation.

“The fencing of the India-Myanmar border is an important project for the BRO, which is now coming up in Moreh. The area around this border has been unfenced since long, and there was a need to check the activities around it,” the ADG said.

Singh said that the BRO has a long-term roll-out plan of nearly Rs 30,000 crore in the northeast over the next five years, and out of this, almost two-thirds is focused on Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

The organisation was earlier involved in fencing the India-Bangladesh border along with the BSF, he said.