A BSF jawan stands guard at Narayanpur in Tripura. File picture

Agartala, Dec. 8: The Union home ministry will install floodlights on the entire 4,095-km Indo-Bangladesh border, of which a stretch of 2,840km in the Northeast will be lit by 2012.

The move comes in view of the spurt in terror strikes in the country and aims at checking the cross-border movement of militants and terrorists. The Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (Huji) is said to have been involved in many of the attacks.

The 4,095km border will cover 856km in Tripura, 318km in Mizoram, 262km in Assam, 2,216km in West Bengal and the riverine stretches.

On the long riverine stretches, which are open and porous and cannot be adequately lighted, floodlight towers will be put up in convenient areas inland, official sources here said.

“The difficulty is that 367km of the 1,146km-long border in south Bengal is riverine and so are several areas in Assam. These stretches will require patrolling by motorboats or trawlers. We do not have this problem in Tripura,” a source in the home department here said.

“The floodlight towers will initially be installed on border road networks running along the fences,” the source said.

The task of installing floodlights in Tripura has been awarded to the National Projects Construction Corporation (NPCC) Limited, a premiere construction company. This has raised eyebrows, as the NPCC is not known to have any experience in electrification.

“All we know is that the work has been allotted to the NPCC and since it is a big organisation, it must be having the wherewithal to execute the work,” the source said.

The NPCC, in the meantime, has started engaging local sub-contractors for the work.

The source said an outlay of Rs 300 crore has been marked for the entire floodlight project.

An amount of Rs 1,327 crore at the current prices will be allocated for completing the work on the targeted stretch of 2,840km in the region.

Sources said the floodlight project had been given top priority by the Union home ministry because of the tardy progress in fencing work.

Of the 856km border in Tripura, only 696km has been fenced so far. The pace and progress of work in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam have not been satisfactory either over the past five years.

“During the past decade, these four northeastern states, especially Tripura and Assam, have emerged as major corridors for cross-border movement of terrorist elements from Bangladesh and the Union home ministry is determined to put a stop to this,” the source said.

The installation of floodlights is expected to proceed smoothly and rapidly and without any controversy or protest from Bangladesh, he added.

The decision to install floodlights along the entire Indo-Bangladesh border was taken by the Union home ministry after the successful installation of floodlights on a 277km stretch in West Bengal.