AGARTALA, Dec 4 � The 856-km international border shared by Tripura with Bangladesh cannot be fenced before 2014, though the non-completion of the works poses a serious threat to internal security.
The ongoing fencing works along the border was supposed to the competed by March 2012 but the efforts have fallen short due to some unavoidable circumstances other than funds, highly placed sources said here on Friday.
The sources said the CPWD, which has been entrusted with preparing the estimates for the fencing works, has failed to deliver as there is no designated engineer to verify the all-important task.
Border Management, a wing of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has stopped releasing funds after the authority concerned failed to submit verified estimates of fencing works, leading to tardy pace of work in different stretches along the border.
Despite displeasure of the State Government over the tardy pace of the fencing works, the CPWD seems to be in a dilemma to break the deadlock so that the task could be expedited.
BSF authorities here admitted that the ongoing fencing works are a little bit slow as the prepared estimates of works are yet to be verified by third party � CPWD. Apart from this, at some places, the construction agencies have been facing a lot of problems as there is no motorable road leading to the construction sites.
Fencing works have virtually been stalled at 152 places due to opposition from the Bangladesh side as well as local people. �However, we have been able to resolve 50 per cent of the total objections raised by the Bangladesh Government,� said DIG, Tripura Frontier, KN Sual.
Revealing the status of the barbed wire fencing, the DIG said that around 600-km Indo-Bangla border had already been fenced and about 162-km stretch of the international border is yet to be fenced.
�The fencing works which were supposed to be completed by March 2012 are likely to need more time because of various problems. We don�t directly handle erection of fencing along the border and it is the responsibility of the construction agencies to carry out the task,� he pointed out.
When asked about the progress of installation of floodlights along the border, Sual said that work has been done along 65 km border out of total 720 km. The 65 km stretch is ready for operation but needs to be provided service connection. The DIG further added that the flood lighting works have made good progress in another 200 km international border.
Earlier, Chief Secretary SK Panda had expressed his displeasure over the tardy pace of barbed wire fencing work along the State�s international border giving a safe corridor for cross border movement of anti-Indian elements including insurgents.