The Centre has said the India-Myanmar border will be fenced (File)
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) will fence a major portion of the strategic India-Myanmar border, and a 10-km stretch in Manipur has already been covered, a senior official said.
The Home Ministry has identified around 1,700 km of fencing that needs to be done, BRO Additional Director General (East) PKH Singh said.
The organisation has already finished fencing 10 km along the border in Manipur's Moreh, which was handed over to the Assam Rifles, Mr Singh told PTI in an interview.
Home Minister Amit Shah recently said the Centre has decided that the India-Myanmar border will be protected by barbed fencing like the India-Bangladesh border, and the government was rethinking the free movement agreement with Myanmar.
Four states - Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram - share a 1,643-km border with Myanmar.
Mr Singh said the next 80-km stretch in Manipur has also been identified and the detailed project report (DPR) has been submitted to the ministry.
Fencing the remaining 250 km, along with its approach roads, is in the planning stage with the DPR under preparation.
"The fencing of the India-Myanmar border is an important project for the BRO, which is now coming up in Moreh. The area around this border has been unfenced for a long time, and there was a need to check the activities around it," the senior BRO officer said.
Mr Singh said the BRO has a long-term roll-out plan of nearly Rs 30,000 crore in the northeast over the next five years, and out of this, almost two-thirds is focused in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
The organisation was earlier involved in fencing the India-Bangladesh border along with the Border Security Force (BSF), he said.