India plans to spend about $3.7 billion building a fence along its 1,610-kilometer border with Myanmar, the purpose of this significant project is to stop smuggling and other illicit activities that have been prevalent along the porous border.

In order to safeguard national security and preserve the demographic equilibrium in the northeast region, New Delhi said earlier this year that it will fence the border between India and Myanmar and terminate the long-standing visa-exempt travel policy for Indian residents residing near the border. This action was prompted by worries about the regional and family ties between the northeastern states of India and Myanmar, as well as the thousands of soldiers and civilians that crossed the border following the military coup in Myanmar in 2021. The increase in international migration has raised concerns about possible conflicts between communities spilling into India.

The porous border between Myanmar and northeastern India has been blamed by some Indian government officials for escalating the already unstable situation in Manipur, which borders Myanmar. For the past year, Manipur has been engulfed in a conflict similar to a civil war between two ethnic groups, one of which has ancestral ties to the Chin tribe of Myanmar. The porous border has been blamed for this because it makes it easier for people to cross the border with arms, which has contributed to the unrest in Manipur.

Three main goals motivate India's massive fencing project along the border with Myanmar. First, by building a physical barrier to stop the trafficking of goods, weapons, and other illegal objects across the border. Second, the project aims to prevent crimes like drug smuggling, human trafficking, and other cross-border offenses in order to manage unlawful operations. Finally, by controlling cross-border migration, India hopes to preserve the demographic structure that  exists in its northeastern region.

An unidentified source who was not authorized to speak to the media earlier this month said that a government committee has approved the fencing project's cost along the India-Myanmar border, awaiting permission from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet. There hasn't been a prompt response to requests for comments made to the Prime Minister's Office and other ministries, including home, finance, foreign affairs, and information and broadcasting. As of yet, Myanmar has not made any announcements about India's intentions to build border barrier.

The source further states that the building of feeder roads spanning over 1,700 kilometers that connect military bases to the border and parallel roads running beside the fence have been approved by the committee of senior Indian authorities. The expected cost of the fence and the adjacent road is around 125 million rupees per kilometer, which is more than the 55 million per kilometer cost of the border fence with Bangladesh that was built in 2020. This increased cost can be justified by the challenging hilly terrain, the use of cutting-edge technology to prevent intrusion, boosting border surveillance capabilities and making it more accessible for Indian Military.

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