Centre implements 10 km border stretch with Myanmar in Manipur's Moreh, says Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has talked of the fencing exercise that the Centre is implementing along the Indo-Myanmar border, while stating that a 10 kilometer stretch in Manipur's border town Moreh, has already been fenced. 

Taking to social media platform X, Home Minister Shah said, "The Modi government is committed to building impenetrable borders."

Shah said that the government as decided to construct a fence along the entire 1643-kilometer-long Indo-Myanmar border. He added here that to facilitate better surveillance, a patrol track along the border will also be paved.

"Out of the total border length,  a 10 km stretch in Moreh, Manipur, has already been fenced," said Shah. 

The Union Home Minister also said that two pilot projects of fencing through a Hybrid Surveillance System (HSS) are under execution. He said that they will fence a stretch of 1 km each in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.

He also stated that fence works covering approximately 20 km in Manipur have also been approved, and the work will start soon.

 

The Modi government is committed to building impenetrable borders.

It has decided to construct a fence along the entire 1643-kilometer-long Indo-Myanmar border. To facilitate better surveillance, a patrol track along the border will also be paved.
Out of the total border length,…

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) February 6, 2024

 

Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also welcomed the Union Home Minister's announcement and took to social media platform X where he called it a commendable and bold decision. 

"This is a commendable and bold decision which will have a huge stabilising impact on the entire North Eastern region. State-of-the-art fencing , shall also minimise incidents of cross border insurgency and infiltration through better surveillance. My gratitude to Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji and Hon’ble Home Minister Shri @amitshah ji for this great effort to secure our borders," said the Assam CM on X. 

Noteworthy is that the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had recently stated that they will fence a major portion of the strategic India-Myanmar border, and a 10-km stretch in Manipur has already been covered.

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 had said. The organisation has already finished fencing 10 km along the border in Manipur’s Moreh, which has been handed over to the Assam Rifles. 

The border fencing comes in after the Centre recently made it clear that they are going to fence the entire stretch of the Indo-Myanmar border. It was also stated that the Centre is going to scrap the Free Movement Regime, a system which has allowed certain border residents to move freely within a specific distance across the Indo-Myanmar border, which has been a longstanding tradition. 

The move to scrap the FMR and fence the border has met with protest from various tribal communities in the region, especially in the state's of Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland.