BGB Consents to Erection of 'Single Row Fencing' along Indo-Bangla Border

Agartala, February 23, 2020: 

The Border Guards of Bangladesh (BGB) has agreed “in principle” to erect Single Row Fencing (SRF) within 150 yards of international borders as per the proposals forwarded by the BSF.

A source in the BSF, talking to Inside Northeast, said, “The BGB have agreed to allow construction within 150 yards of international fencing. It is pertinent to mention here that the construction of fencing work in the bordering areas have been started in the year 2004 with a proposal to raise the fencing at a distance of 150 yards. Accordingly, fencing was erected along areas with low human populations, however, the process ran into a hurdle when the locals objected to the erection of fences in some of the bordering areas with higher populations.."

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It is pertinent to mention here that on June 2016 last, the Secretary of Border Management visited Tripura to take note of the ground situation in the Northeast Indian state.

A stakeholders' meeting was convened where it was decided to construct SRF in the densely populated areas and composite fencing in the areas where there were no inhabitants in order to plug the gaps off. A joint survey was also conducted by the local administration and the construction agency of BSF.

After completion of the joint survey, the proposal was forwarded to BGB for further concurrence. On the other hand, the BGB requested for joint survey by both the Battalion Commanders from the BSF and BGB before recommending the case to higher authorities.

Thus, a joint survey was subsequently carried out by both commandants and directors of the adjoining areas of both the countries .

"The proposal was forwarded to higher authorities of BGB for approval after the battalion level joint survey. Only recently, the BGB had agreed for the construction of Single Row Fencing as proposed by BSF which would be highly beneficial for the border management in the area", sources in the BSF said.

"A formal request will be sent to the state government for land acquisition. By that time, the BSF will chalk out the plans and design of SRF that will be erected along the border", our source added.

Notably, local stakeholders' meetings taking place in the presence of the locals and r representatives from civil administrations, elected bodies and BSF, in order to persuade the locals to give their nod of consent.

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