Fixing blind spots

India's new border grid promises a high-tech shield, but complex borders remain the real test

9 min read

Updated On: Jul 10 2026 | 1:58 PM IST

Border Security Force personnel patrol along the India-Bangladesh border at Dhanpur village in Tripura, in 2014. Photo: ReutersBorder Security Force personnel patrol along the India-Bangladesh border at Dhanpur village in Tripura, in 2014. Photo: Reu

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has announced a new “quadrangular security grid’ which will coordinate the efforts of the Indian Army, Border Security Force (BSF), local police, civil administration, and people living along the border in guarding the borders.

This announcement came on May 29, soon after the BSF received some 600 hectares of land along the Bangladesh border from the new Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal. These moves came in the wake of the Union government’s promise to curb illegal migration from Bangladesh.

India shares an over-4,000-km-long international border with Bangladesh, which runs along five states — Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and West Bengal.

According to reports, this new grid will help guard the fence and secure depth areas up to 50 km beyond it. Drones, radars, smart watchtowers, and electro-optical systems will be deployed faster. The BSF will remain the lead force, but would operate inside a layered grid where responsibilities are shared with different services.

Demolish all illegal structures within 15 km of int'l border: Amit Shah

Illegal migration across the Indo-Bangladesh border has become one of the most prominent political and security issues in West Bengal over the past couple of years.

“The porous nature of the border has historically been a major source of illegal migration from Bangladesh. West Bengal shares approximately 2,216 km of border with Bangladesh, more than 50 per cent of the total India-Bangladesh boundary, making the state particularly vulnerable,” Pushpita Das, research fellow and coordinator at the Internal Security Centre at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), said.

“The border’s terrain and the demographic composition of the area make it easy for Bangladeshi nationals to slip into India and blend in with the local population,’’ she added.

Government data shows that infiltration attempts across India’s borders remain significant, with the India-Bangladesh frontier recording the highest numbers. In 2025 alone (January–November), there were about 1,104 infiltration attempts and 2,556 arrests.

The Union government is multiplying its efforts to guard sensitive borders; it announced the Smart Border Project on May 22 alongside the BSF. The project aims to upgrade 6,000 km of frontline defence by replacing old physical infrastructure with an automated sensor grid, integrating drone-detection radars, thermal cameras, and micro-unmanned aerial vehicles into a single command dashboard.

“Threats along borders have changed, and the technologies and the ways the borders are guarded should adapt to these changing threats. This is why we are seeing a shift towards a more integrated structure towards border management,” said Neeraj Gupta, managing director at MKU Ltd, a Kanpur-based company that supplies surveillance and night vision equipment to India’s border forces, the Indian Army and foreign militaries.

“Long-range surveillance through radar, thermal imaging cameras, and night vision systems, all tied into an integrated command and control architecture, is increasingly becoming the backbone of border management,” he added.

The proposed smart borders approach will convert the entire international border with Pakistan and Bangladesh into an intelligent, multi-layered “electronic wall”.

These devices will then feed data into centralised command and control centres through high-speed fibre-optic and satellite communication networks.

These will be complemented by artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning algorithms will analyse the massive influx of information in real time, filter out false alarms, predict infiltration patterns, and generate instant alerts. The smart borders concept is in its final stage, with pilot projects to be rolled out soon at seven to eight locations across different borders.

More of the same?

The concept is not something entirely new. In 2017, the government launched the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS), which aimed to replace physical fences with sensors, thermal imaging, and radar technology to identify cross-border intrusion. This system has been introduced as a pilot project in stretches of 5.5 km in the Jammu sector. It shares a similar design with the recently formulated plan, wherein the sensors and cameras send real-time information into the operations centre. It makes use of the software to create a ‘common operating picture’ for the senior leadership and dispatches quick reaction teams (QRTs) to the breach site.

This system was further enhanced in March 2019 by the BOLD-QIT (Border Electronically Dominated QRT Interception Technique) to cover unfenced and riverine areas of the Brahmaputra River along the Bangladesh border.

“It (CIBMS) hasn’t been effective. It’s been around eight or nine years now, and they said once it was proven successful, it would be implemented along all borders. But it seems it is not so successful. I'm a bit sceptical about how effective these pilot projects really are,” Das said.

There is a deeper concern that the Smart Border Project, for all its ambition, can fall into what analysts call the “tech trap”. The Israel-Gaza border offers an instructive lesson. Israel’s $1.2-billion ‘automated perimeter grid’ featured subterranean sensors, remote-controlled defensive stations, and high-resolution radar networks.

When the system was compromised, small commercial quadcopters dropped explosive munitions directly onto unarmoured power generators, cellular transmission masts, and backup batteries at the base of surveillance towers. The central dashboards went dark.

Then there is the problem of alert fatigue. An AI system monitoring thousands of km will generate false alarms from livestock, shifting terrain, or routine agricultural movements. If a system generates thousands of high-priority alerts a day, human operators face cognitive overload and begin to dismiss notifications.

Eyes in the dark

“Most infiltration attempts occur at night. Visibility is low, and the chances of getting caught are significantly less,” Sanjiv Krishna Sood, retired additional director general of the BSF, told Blueprint.

This is why night vision and thermal imaging equipment are central to the new quadrangular security grid. India has learnt this lesson the hard way, a report published in The Tribune in 1999, noted, “We have lost a large number of infantry officers and jawans in the Kargil sector due to the enemy sniper fire because they can be seen by the enemy at night, but our troops cannot see the enemy movement as they are not equipped with night vision devices.”

Nighttime visibility and surveillance across India’s borders have significantly improved. MKU has emerged as a key supplier of advanced surveillance and night vision equipment to India's border forces and the Indian Army.

In October 2025, it signed a contract with the army worth approximately ₹660 crore for the supply of 29,762 Netro NW 3000 Night Vision Weapon Sights. These indigenously designed sights are compatible with assault rifles and provide enhanced night-fighting capability, enabling soldiers to operate with clarity and precision during nighttime operations.

“As soldier systems become more technology-dense, energy efficiency will determine how long and how effectively a soldier can sustain operations in the field,” Gupta said.

“The feedback loop with frontline forces continuously shapes how we design, refine, and evolve our entire product range, making sure that every solution we deliver truly empowers the soldier who depends on it,” he added.

Even with the latest equipment, the BSF acknowledges that criminals are “taking the help of the best technologies”, forcing it to constantly improve its surveillance capabilities. But technology alone cannot solve the fundamental problem of visibility. “It is not an equipment problem or anything — it’s more of a manpower problem,” Sood said. “Troops are overstretched. They are deployed all along the border and have a wider area to cover. Withdrawal of troops for other duties further delays border security.” This is true of both the western border with Pakistan and the eastern border with Bangladesh. BSF troop reductions, particularly during elections when five out of seven companies from a battalion are moved out, create vulnerabilities that are exploited by infiltrators and smugglers.

While India is moving to raise 16 new BSF battalions (approximately 17,000 personnel) to strengthen both fronts, this will take years to materialise.

Infiltrators arrested along the Indian borders in 2025

“Even with surveillance equipment, if the border guard is compromised, you can do nothing. You have to focus on training your manpower properly, making them honest and sincere,” Das said. “The narrative is coming in a big way now as if manual patrolling is no longer required, (as if) once a camera is installed, you can do everything. It should not be like that.”

Along the 1,643-km Myanmar border, the problem is entirely different: It remains largely unfenced. Only 9.2 km of fencing have been completed so far. The terrain is thickly forested and remote, making 24x7 surveillance extremely difficult.

The government announced in February 2024 that the entire Myanmar border would be fenced and the free movement regime (FMR) scrapped. The FMR allowed people on both sides to travel up to 16 km without visas, but this was later reduced to 10 km, with biometric checks at 43 designated gates. But implementing this on the ground has run into fierce resistance, because people living on both sides of the border share historic cultural and ethnic ties. However, due to instability in Myanmar, there has been smuggling of arms and drugs along the border that fuels conflict between ethnic groups in northeastern states, like Manipur.

“The Myanmar border is heavily forested, and the terrain is extremely difficult. But given the problems we are facing there, maybe a fence is important, but it will take lots of persuasion as far as the local population is concerned,” Das said. “Because they have very strong ties all these years, we let them pass, even though we had the FMR regime. It was not actually implemented strictly, so people used to just go and come.”

In December last year, the home ministry’s secretary for border management visited Manipur’s Moreh town to review security and called for rapid integration of drones and advanced sensor systems to build a smart border management framework.

The new grid may promise advanced sensors and cameras, but India’s borders remain long and the terrain unforgiving. Technology can assist the soldier, but it cannot change reality; that’s the ground the soldier stands on.

Premium ContentPremium ContentSubscription ExpiredSubscription Expired

Your access to Blueprint has ended. But the story is still unfolding.

No longer a subscriber? There’s a new reason to return.

Introducing Blueprint - A magazine on defence & geopolitics

Introducing Blueprint - A magazine on defence & geopolitics

Like what you read? There’s more in every issue of Blueprint

From military strategy to global diplomacy, Blueprint offers sharp, in-depth reportage on the world’s most consequential issues.

Exclusive pricing for Business Standard digital subscribers

Choose your plan

Exclusive Pricing

Choose your plan

58% off

₹6,000

Blueprint Digital

₹2,500

annual (digital-only)

₹208/Month

70% off

₹12,000

Blueprint Complete

₹3,500

annual (digital & print)

₹291/Month

41% off

₹6,000

Blueprint Digital

₹3,500

annual (digital-only)

₹291/Month

62% off

₹12,000

Blueprint Complete

₹4,500

annual (digital & print)

₹375/Month

Subscribe NowSubscribe NowRenew NowRenew Now

Renews automatically, cancel anytime

Browse all Plans

Here's what's included:

Access to the latest issue of the Blueprint digital magazine
Online access to all the upcoming digital magazines along with past digital archives
* Delivery of all the upcoming print magazines at your home or office
Full access to Blueprint articles online
Business Standard digital subscription
1-year unlimited complimentary digital access to The New York Times (News, Games, Cooking, Audio, Wirecutter, The Athletic)