India will soon erect a ‘floating fence’, anchored by submerged metallic meshes, along the disputed Sir Creek border area with Pakistan. The 96 kilometer strip in the Rann of Kutch marshes is notorious for illegal crossings and smuggling of narcotics and arms and is patrolled round-the-clock by BSF marine commandos. Sources said that after mulling over various options, the Union Home Ministry entrusted the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) to install an all-weather ‘gabion box’ fence along the stretch. “While the NBCC will erect the fence on about 75 km of the watery strip, the CPWD has already started work in the rest of the area,” sources said. A ‘gabion box’ is a meshed metallic box-like structure with hexagonal wire nettings, which is lowered down the bed of the water body by filling it with heavy stones. “The fence would be erected on the ‘gabion boxes’ which will have the usual all-weather concertina wires and poles,” an official privy to the development said. Although the dispute has not been settled, sources said the in order to safeguard India’s national interests; the fence would be erected nevertheless.
