Rajnath Singh to inaugurate BOLD-QIT under CIBMS on India-Bangladesh border: All you need to know about project

Home minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to inaugurate BOLD-QIT (Border Electronically Dominated QRT Interception Technique) on Tuesday, under the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS), on the India-Bangladesh border in Assam. The project will bring under electronic surveillance a “highly-porous” riverine section — consisting of ‘char’ (sand islands) and innumerable river channels. With this project, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) aims to keep a check on illegal immigration and smuggling of arms, ammunition, drugs and cattle. What is CIBMS? The CIBMS is an integration of a number of new gadgets and technologies to ensure electronic surveillance of borders. The system, which Rajnath had first come across during his visit to Israel, enables round-the-clock surveillance on the border under different weather conditions. [caption id=“attachment_6194821” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of home minister Rajnath Singh. News18[/caption] In September 2018, Rajnath inaugurated two similar smart fencing pilot projects of five kilometres each on India-Pakistan international border in Jammu. The government plans to cover all areas on the India-Pakistan and the India-Bangladesh borders in the next few years. What is BOLD QIT? BOLD-QIT is a project to install technical systems under the CIBMS, which enables the Border Security Force (BSF) to equip India-Bangladesh borders with different kinds of sensors in the unfenced riverine area of Brahmaputra and its tributaries. While the BSF is responsible for safeguarding the 4,096 kilometre-long International Border with Bangladesh, at various places, it is not possible to erect border fence due to the geographical barriers. The “smart fencing” will be operationalised in the 61-kilometre section of the international border in Dhubri district, where the Brahmaputra river enters into Bangladesh. In order to overcome the issue with guarding the area, the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2017 decided to go for a technological solution besides the physical presence of BSF. In January 2018, the information and technology wing of BSF undertook BOLD-QIT and completed it in time with the technical support of various manufacturers and suppliers. Following the completion of the project, the entire River Brahmaputra has been covered with data network generated by microwave communication, optical fiber cable, digital mobile radio communication, day-and-night surveillance cameras and also an intrusion detecting system. These modern gadgets provide feeds to BSF control rooms on the border and enable the armed forces to thwart any possibility of illegal cross bordering or crimes near the vicinity. The implementation of this project will not only help the BSF jawans to curb all types of cross border crimes but also provide relief to the troops from round the clock human surveillance. With inputs from agencies