Forward defence locations along LoC to get steel infrastructure

New Delhi, November 21

Border Security Force locations along the Line of Control (LoC) will be getting a steel makeover as the paramilitary force embarks on a major project to fortify defences and enhance living facilities for troops along this sensitive high-altitude frontier with Pakistan.

These deployments are called forward defence locations (FDLs), and the border force guards, either jointly with the Army or independently, over 430 kilometres of the total 772-km-long LoC that falls in Jammu and Kashmir.

The FDLs are located in extreme forward snow-bound or dense jungle areas of the LoC and are part of India’s anti-infiltration grid to thwart terrorist activities being conducted from across this un-demarcated frontier.

Behind the FDLs on the Indian side are multiple rings of the Army’s counter-infiltration deployments.

Troops at these icy locations, having altitudes in the range of 8,000-16,000 feet, at present live in CGI (corrugated galvanised iron) sheet-made hutments along with their rations and weapons, exposing them to the vagaries of sub-zero temperatures.

Official sources in the security establishment told PTI that the BSF will convert about 115 of its FDLs to large steel (alloy of iron and carbon) compartments with an overall layout of around Rs 35 crore. The decision was taken after BSF Director General (DG) Pankaj Kumar Singh recently visited the FDLs in Kashmir and reviewed their operational preparedness.

The BSF head interacted with his troops and later directed officials of the Kashmir frontier to prepare an action plan for converting those FDLs to steel so that work can be initiated quickly.

The DG, they said, later also met senior officials of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in Delhi to get solar power projects sanctioned for these FDLs which have been approved in-principle. — PTI

Fortifying defence in high-altitude areas

• Forward defence locations are located in extreme forward snow-bound or dense jungle areas of the LoC and are part of India’s anti-infiltration grid to thwart terror activities being conducted from across the un-demarcated frontier
• The BSF will convert about 115 of its FDLs to large steel (alloy of iron and carbon) compartments with an overall layout of around Rs 35 crore

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