NEW DELHI – The Indian Border Security Force (BSF) plans to put up aComprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) in areas alongthe India- Pakistan and India – Bangladesh border, where it is difficult toput up a fence due to the nature of the terrain as well as checkcross-border infiltration and smuggling, Sharma said.

A pilot project of the CIBMS is underway in two 5-km patches along theIndia-Pakistan border at Jammu and along the India-Bangladesh border atDhubri in Assam, PTI has reported.

CIBMS is an integration of a number of new gadgets and technologies toensure electronic surveillance of borders. These provide feeds to BSFpersonnel at the border outposts, where monitors would be installed.

In case of a threat, quick reaction BSF teams will intervene and neutralizeit, the official said.

“As of now, the CIBMS project will be rolled out in the vulnerable areas ofIndia’s border with Bangladesh and Pakistan. We plan to implement thesystem within the next 3-5 years,” he told PTI in an interview on Friday.

Asked about the plans to cover the unfenced border areas between India andBangladesh, Sharma said, “Fences will be erected wherever we can. Where wecannot erect a fence because of the terrain, the gap will be covered by theCIBMS”. On the smuggling of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) at the borderareas, the BSF DG said the FICN trade has been on the decline sincedemonetisation and introduction of new currency.

The security features in the new notes are very hard to copy and that iswhy the amount of FICN seized is not as much as it used to be beforedemonetisation, he said.

Sharma lauded the pilot of the ‘Crime Free Zone’ project along theBangladesh border in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal and saidit will be replicated in other parts of the Indo-Bangladesh border.

In a bid to control cross-border crimes and smuggling, the BSF and itsBangladesh counterpart, the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), had jointlylaunched the ‘Crime Free Zone” project on Friday.