Jaipur, July 10: Gone are the days when barbed-wire fences or private security agencies were thought adequate to guard Barmer’s oil fields —trained commandos are now manning its borders 24x7.

A special force of 120 commandos drawn from the Border Home Guard has been deployed to protect the oil fields spread over 3,111sqkm, making it a first for Rajasthan. The force has been trained in advance weaponry techniques to thwart possible terror strikes.

The fields, operated by Cairn India, have over 150 drilled wells and produce 1.75 lakh barrels a day. So far, they were guarded by private agencies, Rajasthan police and home guard personnel, who patrolled them round the clock and kept tabs on law and order in surrounding areas.

The decision to deploy a special commando force was taken after Cairn India made a special request to the government. Cairn India has a 70 per cent participating interest in the fields and its joint venture partner, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, the rest.

Ayodhay Prasad Gaur, the corporate communication manager of Cairn India, said: “There is a limit to which private security agencies can take action against miscreants, so we thought it would be proper to deploy commandos at the oil fields.”

To build the commando force, the government picked 120 personnel from the Border Home Guard deployed on the western desert border. They were trained at the Rajasthan Police Training Centre (RPTC) in Jodhpur.

Sawai Singh Godara, the RPTC commandant, said: “Barmer has a harsh climate. Only those people were picked who would be able to acclimatise themselves to the tough desert climate. Thirty jawans each were selected from the Barmer, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Ganganagar border areas.”

Cairn India financed the two-month training, which started on April 30, and will also pay the commandos’ salaries. The company’s officials played an advisory role in the training, pointing out specific security needs at the oil fields.

“The training helped them acquire advanced skills on anti-terrorist activities and rescue operations under the supervision of an officer of the rank of a major general,” Gaur said.

Officials hoped the commandos, equipped with advanced weapons and technical know-how, would be able to avert any terror attack on the oil fields and also function as a support system of the armed forces.

Experts said although hi-tech security meant sensitive cameras, remote monitoring, sophisticated hardware, software analysis and alert employees, most breaches were internal jobs and regular tabs would have to be kept on such possibilities.