Border electrification

Agartala, Oct 10 (UNI) The BSF has assured to introduced the electrification along the 865 km long international border with Bangladesh by 2007, a top BSF official said.

Talking to UNI the official said,''The Border electrification project has reached the plasma stage and we have crossed the fluid stage.'' He said the details of the project had been discussed in the High Level Empowered Committee (HLEC) meeting at New Delhi, a few months ago.

'' More then 200 Kilo Watt (KW) electricity will be needed for the whole project. The state and the Centre will now decide who will provide the electricity,'' said the source.

The official sources said the entire border would be illuminated with flood lights and it would need backup supply and generator services in case of power failure.

Meanwhile, another BSF top official said the 856 km long Indo-Bangladesh border would be fenced with barbed wire.

'' Centre has already sanctioned for the fence work and 621 km stretch of border has been fenced. We are also facing some objection from the localites and Bangladesh Rifles,'' the official said.

Six construction agencies had been assigned to complete the erection of barbed wire fencing, he said.

The official also said at present 172 extremists camps of the North Eastern states are operating from Bangladesh and 58 hideouts of various militant outfits belonging to Tripura were operating from Tripura, Cachar and Mizoram border,'' said the official. UNI PD PP AB 1527