Union Home Minister Amit Shah began a three-day tour of West Bengal’s sensitive border districts on 17 July 2026, visiting the Jumagach Border Outpost near Siliguri on 18 July and interacting with troops of the Border Security Force (BSF). The region abuts the so-called “chicken’s neck” corridor linking India’s north-east and has seen a rise in cross-border trafficking and irregular migration. Officials said Shah reviewed progress on the smart-fencing project that uses ground sensors and drones to plug gaps along the India-Bangladesh boundary. The BSF briefed him on new e-gate pilot trials designed to speed legitimate trade trucks while flagging suspicious movements. Shah also laid the foundation stone for two integrated check-posts (ICPs) aimed at separating cargo and passenger flows—critical for businesses that rely on time-sensitive shipments through the land border. Once operational, the ICPs will feature joint customs and immigration counters, reducing clearance time from the current six hours to under two. Local exporters of tea and horticulture products welcomed the announcement, noting that bottlenecks at smaller border crossings often force them to route goods via Kolkata port at higher cost. However, human-rights groups cautioned that tighter controls must be balanced with humanitarian safeguards for victims of trafficking. Training BSF personnel on revised search-and-rescue protocols is part of the new action plan, a senior home-ministry official said.
Source: The Indian Express
