Fencing along LoC to be over by June: BSF

JAMMU: A top Border Security Force official on Wednesday claimed that fencing along the International Border will be complete by June.
Inspector general BSF, Jammu Frontier, Dilip Trivedi said fencing along 110 km was over. The fencing and floodlighting work in Jammu, for which the Centre sanctioned Rs 89 crore, is being carried out by the BSF. Around 7000 BSF personnel are engaged in the work, besides local labour.The BSF expects to save Rs 12 crore in the project.
The assignment was taken up by the BSF when the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) declined to fence the border because of heavy shelling and firing from across the border.
Six BSF jawans were killed and 32 injured in the last two years since fencing began. Pakistan would resort to heavy shelling to prevent border fencing as terrorists used certain routes along the IB to infiltrate to the Indian side.
However, since ceasefire came into effect along the Indo-Pak IB and Line of Control on November 26, 2003, there has been no exchange of fire between forces of the two countries.
Trivedi said fencing was being erected at a distance of 50 to 100 metre inside the Indian territory. The barbed wire fencing at certain points just touched the border, he said. The 12-foot high fencing with 53 strands of barbed wire, he said, was formidable as it remained lit at night and was backed by generators. It was easy to site an infiltrator and troops too had a defined area to defend, Trivedi said.
He was, however, wary of the fact that six to seven km of nallahs and river beds (Ujh, Basantar, Nikki Tawi) along IB, which in the past served as traditional terrorist infiltration routes, would remain a problem even after fencing was complete.