DHUBRI, March 5 - Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh along with Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal on Tuesday formally inaugurated the much awaited technology-driven �smart fencing� project, BOLD-QIT Comprehensive Integrated Border Management system to seal the riverine borders of India and Bangladesh that lay unfenced since the country�s independence.
They inaugurated the project at the Barmanpara area near the international border of Dhubri district in the presence of senior Border Security Force (BSF) officials. The BOLD-QIT (Border Electronically Dominated QRT Interception Technique) project will enable the BSF to equip the Indo-Bangladesh border with different kinds of sensors in unfenced riverine area of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries.
The security officials have covered the unfenced 61-km border in the district with data network generated by microwave communication, OFC cables, DMR communication, day-and-night surveillance cameras and intrusion detection system. These modern gadgets provide feeds to BSF control rooms on the border and enable BSF Quick Reaction Teams to thwart any possibility of illegal cross-border crossing, crimes like cattle smuggling and distribution of fake Indian currency notes.
The Union Home Minister said that such a system was installed in an 11-km range on the Indo-Pakistan border in Jammu but the Dhubri range is wider. �I have seen such technology-driven security system in Israel, where it has given better results than human security barriers,� he said.
�This system will not only be beneficial for the country but will also help the security officials by enhancing their capabilities,� the Union minister said, adding, the project will be very beneficial for night surveillance.
�Although the Indo-Bangladesh borders are totally sealed in the Assam part, it cannot be said so for the international borders in West Bengal,� he said. �Due to the noncooperative attitude of the West Bengal government, land acquisition for installing such a system is still pending there,� Singh added.
The Rs 86-crore project in Dhubri district was started in January 2018, BSF officials said.
