High vigil for border management on riverine frontiers with Pakistan

New Delhi: An integrated border management system that will include thermal imaging, fibre-optic communication and heightened vigil on riverine frontiers with Pakistan are among suggestions made by a home ministry-appointed committee that also flagged gaps and vulnerability in border fencing.

The committee headed by former Union home secretary Madhukar Gupta was set up following the terror attack on Pathankot air base in January and it submitted its report to home minister Rajnath Singh on Monday. The committee was originally given two months to submit its report, but it took four.

Scientific methods like laser walls could not be installed in many infiltration-prone areas where due to treacherous terrain or marshy riverine fencing could not be installed so far, the report said.

The committee has given separate recommendations to four states which touch the international border with Pakistan as each state has separate topography and problems. A thermal imaging will help improve visibility of objects in a dark environment by detecting the objects via infrared radiation and creating an image based on that information.

Similarly, fibre-optics communication will help security forces to transmit information at a faster rate from one place after identifying any breach in the system. The committee was set up three months after the attack on Pathankot air base to suggest ways to strengthen the security along the border with Pak.

It has been mandated to study all types of gaps in the fencing and all other vulnerabilities along the border and suggest a comprehensive approach to fix them on a permanent basis.