Home ministry to convene high-level meeting on Kashmir fencing

NEW DELHI: The Union Home Ministry will soon convene a high-level meeting with experts in the field of engineering and Army officials to ascertain feasibility of erecting permanent fence along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir that can withstand heavy snowfall.

The move is aimed at achieving zero-infiltration of terrorists from Pakistan and PoK.

In the meeting, which will be chaired by Union Secretary R K Singh, experts from Central Public Works Department, National Buildings Construction Corporation, IIT and Engineering Corps of the Army will be asked to study the feasibility of erecting an all-weather fence that can withstand snow avalanches and heavy snowfall, official sources said.

Experts from Indian Meteorological Department will also be present at the meeting and they would identify highly avalanche prone areas after taking into account average of snowfall for the last one decade.

Out of the 740 km length of the LoC with Pakistan, India has built fence of around 550 km, work for which was completed in 2004. Out of this, 83 kilometres of fencing is damaged due to snowfall or avalanches. This comes handy for terrorists to infiltrate into the state.

As per the proposal, a brain child of Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Ashok Prasad, the Union Home Ministry will also send a team of experts comprising civil engineers from reputed institutions to the LoC to carry out a detailed feasibility study of erecting a permanent fence, the sources said.

The Home Ministry will later prepare a cabinet note which will be sent to the Cabinet Committee on Security headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for consideration.