Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday reviewed the progress of ongoing projects being executed by the Land Ports Authority of India and the Border Management Division. During the meeting in New Delhi, Singh expressed satisfaction at the progress of work and directed the officials to complete the pending works at an early date.
Home Ministry said in a statement that Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) at five border crossing points, out of seven approved projects, have been completed. “Terminals for smooth movement of goods and people at ICP Raxaul and Jogbani on India-Nepal Border, ICP Petrapole and Agartala on India-Bangladesh Border and ICP Attari on India-Pakistan Border have been made functional,” it said.
The Ministry said, work on ICP Moreh on India-Myanmar Border and ICP Dawki on India-Bangladesh Border is in advanced stage of completion. The total approved expenditure for these seven ICPs projects is more than 700 crore rupees.
Rajnath directed the officials to take up construction of additional 13 ICPs at Hili, Jaigaon, Ghojadanga, Mahadipur, Sunauli Changrabandha, Fulbari, Rupaidiha, Kawrpuichhuah, Panitanki, Sutarkandi, Banbasa and Bhithamore and Passenger Terminal at Petrapole.
Under the Border Management Division, projects have been taken up for construction of 18 Coastal Border Outposts (BOPs) in Gujarat and improvement of Border Floodlighting in Punjab and Rajasthan.
It said, some projects which have been pending due to issues related to acquisition of land have resumed following Singh’s letters to Governments of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura and Bihar.
Projects under the Border Area Development Programme to improve road and mobile connectivity in the border villages as well as imparting skills to the people have also made good progress.
To improve coastal security, 121 Coastal Police Stations have been operationalised, 30 jetties have been constructed and Biometric Cards have been issued to 18.5 lakh fishermen.
