General V. K. Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, on Monday underlined the need for user-oriented technological solutions for securing the country's borders. Close interface of the manufacturers of border surveillance systems with the users was critical to enable border security forces to identify, delay and disrupt infiltration.
Inaugurating the 'Smart Border Management 2018' conference organised by FICCI in collaboration with India Foundation, Singh said in view of the uniqueness of India’s borders in terms of the variety of terrain and climatic differences, it was imperative to have in place systems that required minimal maintenance and were easy to handle. In addition, technology should have reliable and robust alarm systems to reduce the response time for counter-measures, he emphasised.
In this context, he suggested that user core groups need to be constituted to interact with manufacturers of border management technological systems to build customised solutions.
It is noteworthy that the Smart Border Management conference coincided with the launch today of two pilot projects in Jammu by Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, under the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management Solution (CIBMS). Each project covers 5.5 kms-border stretches. The two stretches along the international border in Jammu will have a first-of-a-kind, high-tech surveillance system that will create an invisible electronic barrier on land, water and even in air and underground, helping the BSF to detect and foil infiltration bids in the most difficult of terrains. FICCI, which has been advocating the implementation of technology and solutions for Smart Border Management and the CIBMS project, has been extensively discussed at FICCI platform at the previous editions of Border Management programmes.