By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Out of the 2579 km of fencing sanctioned under Phase-II project along Indo-Bangladesh Border (IBB), 1871 km fencing has been completed. In addition, work in 160 km is in progress. In the Meghalaya sector 126.07km of fencing is completed so far out of 272.17km. As of now, 62.92km of fencing work is in progress in the state alongside other northeastern states in the region. The other state in the region where fencing work has been completed is 73.38km (Assam) and 746.70km (Tripura). In these two states 0.84 and 31.31km work is in progress, respectively. It is learnt that 771km of replacement work has been completed in the region. As per the present approval, the above works were targeted to be completed by March, 2012. The remaining work however is spilled over primarily due to on-ground constraints, that is, pending land acquisition, forest/wildlife clearance, un-demarcated border/ adverse possession issues with Bangladesh, habitation up to zero line in some cases, nature of terrain in some places – riverside, low lying etc. The balance works are likely to be completed on resolution of above constraints. It may be mentioned that an amount Rs2195.67crore has been spent till March 31, 2012 on fencing works along the IBB. Any damage to the barbed wire fencing and their maintenance and repairing is undertaken by the CPWD.