NEW DELHI, Jan 2:
For the first time, India is constructing “permanent vertical bunkers” of concrete to station BSF troops right at the strategically significant Sir Creek and ‘Harami Nalla’ marshy area along the India-Pakistan International Border in Gujarat, official sources said.
The Union Home Ministry has sanctioned a Rs 50-crore fund for the construction of eight multi-storeyed bunkers cum observation posts in this area along the Bhuj sector in view of the “constant infiltration of Pakistani fishermen and fishing boats in the area”, the sources said.
The top floor of each of the 42-foot high ‘vertical bunkers’ will have space for mounting surveillance gadgets and radars to keep an eye on the area that comprises serpentine estuaries. The rest two floors will have the capacity to house around 15 armed BSF personnel and their logistics, the officials said.
According to officials, these bunkers are being erected in the Lakhpat Wari bet, Dafa bet and Samudra bet on the eastern side of the creek area, well within Indian territory.
A BSF contingent is providing armed protection to the labourers engaged by the CPWD to complete the construction of the three bunkers in the Sir Creek area by March. The ocean gets too turbulent from April and hence the work is going on at war footing, a senior BSF officer said.
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