Indo-Myanmar border to have helipads; Rs 8640 cr budget soon

NEW DELHI: The government is planning to build helicopter bases and enhance road connectivity along the porous Indo-Myanmar border to enable dispatching of quick reinforcements and other supplies to BSF troops who will now guard the border instead of the paramilitary Assam Rifles.

The Centre is also expected to clear a Rs 8639.81 crore budget plan in the coming fiscal to raise additional 41 battalions in the Border Security Force which will now be deployed close to that border in order to enhance vigil.

The BSF will have additional 41,000 personnel, four frontier headquarters, 11 sector headquarters after the government recently decided to replace the Assam Rifles -- currently guarding the 1,640km-long frontier -- by the BSF, which guards borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"A security audit report jointly prepared by the BSF and Assam Rifles has been submitted to the Home Ministry. The proposal envisages construction of helipads and enhancement of road network along the porous and densely forested Indo-Myanmar border," sources familiar with the development said.

"The proposal is under active consideration and advanced stage for approval, including the financial sanction for increasing the strength of the BSF, to enable it to take up the new responsibility," they said.

Most of the posts of Assam Rifles are located well inside Indian territory and only a handful of posts are located near the zero line, which makes it easier for the insurgents camping in Myanmar to sneak into India easily.

The BSF has hence been asked to construct the posts close to the border, they said.

BSF is currently responsible for guarding the Indo-Pak and Indo-Bangla borders and about ten of its battalions are also deployed in Maoist-affected areas in central and eastern India and anti-insurgency operations in the Northeast.

Assam Rifles was entrusted with the responsibility of guarding the border with Myanmar in 2002 and at that time, the strength of the force was 30 battalions.

Gradually, the strength of the force has been increased to 46 battalions. Twenty more battalions are being raised by the force, the country's oldest paramilitary force to take up duties related to internal security.