India is speculated to fence its 1,610-kilometer porous border with Myanmar for approximately $3.7 billion within ten years to stop smuggling and other illicit activities. The information is according to a report from Reuters with intimate knowledge of the situation. The center had previously declared that for reasons of national security and to preserve the demographic makeup of its northeastern area, it would fence the border and revoke the decades-old visa-free travel policy with coup-hit Myanmar for border people.Heres what the cabinet has to sayThe source, who wished to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the media, stated that a government committee earlier this month cleared the fencings cost. Prime Minister Narendra Modis cabinet must then approve it. An email requesting comment was not immediately answered by the prime ministers office or the ministries of home, finance, foreign affairs, information, and broadcasting.Myanmar and India: a tale of horrorsMyanmar has not yet responded to Indias proposals for fencing. Following a military takeover in Myanmar in 2021, hundreds of troops and thousands of civilians have fled to Indian areas where there are shared ancestry and family. The possibility of ethnic hostilities escalating into India has alarmed New Delhi.A few government officials have also attributed the current situation in Manipur, which borders Myanmar, to the porous border. There has been bloodshed in Manipur for almost a year between two ethnic groups, one of which is related to the Chin tribe of Myanmar.The overall scene at hand The source added that the group of senior Indian officials also decided to construct feeder roads spanning 1,700 km (1,050 miles) that would connect military bases to the border as well as parallel roads running parallel to the fence. Due to the challenging steep terrain and the usage of technologies to prevent intrusion and corrosion, the barrier and the adjacent road would cost roughly 125 million rupees per kilometer, more than twice as much as the 55 million per km cost of the border fence with Bangladesh built in 2020, the source added.
