A recent report has revealed that India is constructing a $3.7 billion border wall with Myanmar, citing national security concerns and the need to preserve the demographic composition of its northeastern region.
According to a report by The Economic Times, India intends to fence its 1,610-kilometer (1,000-mile) border with Myanmar for a total of around $3.7 billion over the next ten years to stop smuggling and other illegal activities.
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Citing national security concerns and the necessity to maintain the demographic makeup of its northeastern region, New Delhi declared earlier this year that it intended to fence the border and end the long-standing visa-free movement policy with Myanmar for border inhabitants.
The same article states that the fencing project’s cost was recently approved by a government committee and is currently awaiting cabinet clearance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Myanmar has not yet responded to India’s proposals for fencing.
Thousands of soldiers and citizens have fled to Indian states where they have family and ethnic links, after a military takeover in Myanmar in 2021. In New Delhi, this has sparked worries about the possibility of intercommunal strife spreading to India.
Some Indian government officials have also linked the porous border to the uneasy situation in Manipur, a restive northeastern state that borders Myanmar.
The source further stated that the senior Indian authorities’ committee had approved the building of feeder roads spanning 1,700 km (1,050 miles) that would connect military barracks to the border as well as parallel roads beside the fence.
An estimated 125 million rupees will be spent on the fence and the corresponding road infrastructure per kilometer, which is more than twice as much as the 55 million rupees per kilometer border fence with Bangladesh that will be constructed in 2020.
The difficult hilly terrain and the use of technologies to prevent corrosion and incursion are to blame for this increased expense.