10-24-2006, 11:44 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Repair of bunkers, fence along LoC top priority </b>
Rahul Datta | New Delhi
Army sets itself pre-winter deadline
Repairing the bunkers and the anti-infiltration fence along the Line of Control on India's borders, extensively damaged following the earthquake last year, has become the top priority of the armed forces.
<b>There has been a spurt of foiled infiltration bids in Jammu and Kashmir in the past few days, and as winter nears, terrorists appear to be making last ditch efforts before heavy snowfalls make border-crossing nearly impossible. Hence the sense of urgency among the forces</b>.
The issue figured prominently during the Army commanders' conference last week and operational commanders were directed to finish the repair work before the onset of winter. <b>The bunkers mostly house soldiers who man the LoC. Along with several jawans who died in the devastating earthquake in October 2005, these bunkers were flattened beyond salvation.</b>
Last year, the Army working on a war footing had managed to erect makeshift bunkers in inaccessible areas before winter<b> but the pre-fabricated materials used could not withstand the harsh weather.</b>
<b>Now local commanders have been asked to build permanent structures capable of withstanding artillery fire and the extreme cold using special construction material, sources</b> said here on Monday.
In the last 10 months, the Army had also actively aided the quake-affected and this had slowed them down in reconstructing the bunkers.
<b>A large portion of the 750-km-long, anti-infiltration fence was also damaged and the commanders meet reviewed the progress made on this front given the enormity of effort required to ferry construction materials through porters and mules to extremely inaccessible areas.</b> As soon as the cruel winter months were over, the Army engineers got down to the job and managed to re-erect the fence along with specialised devices to detect infiltration like thermal imagers and other electronic gadgets, sources said.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Rahul Datta | New Delhi
Army sets itself pre-winter deadline
Repairing the bunkers and the anti-infiltration fence along the Line of Control on India's borders, extensively damaged following the earthquake last year, has become the top priority of the armed forces.
<b>There has been a spurt of foiled infiltration bids in Jammu and Kashmir in the past few days, and as winter nears, terrorists appear to be making last ditch efforts before heavy snowfalls make border-crossing nearly impossible. Hence the sense of urgency among the forces</b>.
The issue figured prominently during the Army commanders' conference last week and operational commanders were directed to finish the repair work before the onset of winter. <b>The bunkers mostly house soldiers who man the LoC. Along with several jawans who died in the devastating earthquake in October 2005, these bunkers were flattened beyond salvation.</b>
Last year, the Army working on a war footing had managed to erect makeshift bunkers in inaccessible areas before winter<b> but the pre-fabricated materials used could not withstand the harsh weather.</b>
<b>Now local commanders have been asked to build permanent structures capable of withstanding artillery fire and the extreme cold using special construction material, sources</b> said here on Monday.
In the last 10 months, the Army had also actively aided the quake-affected and this had slowed them down in reconstructing the bunkers.
<b>A large portion of the 750-km-long, anti-infiltration fence was also damaged and the commanders meet reviewed the progress made on this front given the enormity of effort required to ferry construction materials through porters and mules to extremely inaccessible areas.</b> As soon as the cruel winter months were over, the Army engineers got down to the job and managed to re-erect the fence along with specialised devices to detect infiltration like thermal imagers and other electronic gadgets, sources said.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->