India's land borders stretch 15,106.7 km across seven neighbours, through deserts, mountains, forests, marshes and rivers. For decades they were guarded mainly by manpower and physical fencing, and a fence cannot stand in a river, a marsh or a landslide-prone slope. Those gaps were used for infiltration, smuggling and trafficking, and more recently by drones carrying weapons and narcotics.
Border Security & Smart Fencing
Border Security & Smart Fencing
India's land borders run for thousands of kilometres through deserts, mountains, marshes and rivers, and much of that ground cannot simply be fenced. Since 2018 the answer has been technology on top of the fence: smart fencing under the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System links sensors, radars and fibre-optic lines to a control room, and DRDO has built India's own counter-drone systems, including a 30 kW laser that brought down a drone swarm in 2025. By February 2025, 3,232 km of the 4,096.7 km India–Bangladesh border was fenced. The timeline traces the milestones.
~71 km
Smart-fence pilots (2018–19)
30 kW
DRDO laser that downs drone swarms
1,954
Border villages under VVP-II
India–Bangladesh border fenced (Feb 2025)
2018
Smart fencing comes to the border
The first two pilot projects of smart fencing open on the India–Pakistan border in Jammu, under the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS).
2019
BOLD-QIT guards a river border
2021
India's own counter-drone system
2023
Vibrant Villages Programme
2025
A 30 kW laser, and villages on every land border
2026
VVP-II launched in Assam
2018
1milestones
20182026
Latest
Smart fencing comes to the border
The first two pilot projects of smart fencing open on the India–Pakistan border in Jammu, under the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS).
Why it matters Secure borders stop infiltration, smuggling, trafficking and cross-border terrorism, and they let border villages grow instead of emptying out. Technology lets the forces watch long, difficult stretches around the clock, and home-built counter-drone systems answer a threat that a fence alone cannot.
- 3,232 km of the 4,096.7 km India–Bangladesh border was fenced by February 2025.
- Smart fencing (CIBMS) links thermal imagers, radars, ground sensors, sonar for rivers and fibre-optic sensors to one command-and-control system.
- The first smart-fence pilots covered about 71 km; the next stages plan some 1,955 km of border that cannot be physically fenced.
- DRDO's 30 kW laser (Mk-II(A)) brought down a fixed-wing drone and a drone swarm at Kurnool in April 2025.
- Vibrant Villages Programme-II (₹6,839 crore) covers 1,954 villages along India's land borders.
History
Notable milestone
In September 2018 the first smart fence pilots opened on the India–Pakistan border in Jammu, and in March 2019 BOLD-QIT began guarding a 61 km riverine stretch of the India–Bangladesh border in Dhubri, Assam. Together the pilots covered about 71 km and set the stage for extending the system along some 1,955 km of border that cannot be physically fenced.
How it works
The Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) layers technology over the fence: thermal imagers, infrared and laser intruder alarms, aerostats, unattended ground sensors, radars, sonar for river stretches and fibre-optic sensors all feed one command-and-control centre, so a quick reaction team can move the moment something crosses. Against drones, DRDO's indigenous system detects the drone, jams its links (soft kill) or destroys it with a laser (hard kill).
Outlook
The fence keeps extending along the India–Bangladesh border, and in April 2025 DRDO's 30 kW Mk-II(A) laser showed it can bring down drone swarms, putting India alongside the US, China and Russia. Alongside security, Vibrant Villages Programme-II (₹6,839 crore) is building roads, schools, livelihoods and connectivity in 1,954 border villages across 17 states and union territories, so that people stay and prosper on the frontier.
By the numbers
3,232 km of the 4,096.7 km India–Bangladesh border fenced (February 2025). ~71 km of smart-fence pilots (2018–19), with ~1,955 km planned where fencing is not possible. 30 kW DRDO laser that downed a drone swarm (April 2025). 1,954 villages under Vibrant Villages Programme-II (₹6,839 crore). Sources: Ministry of Home Affairs, DRDO, PIB, All India Radio.
Data current to: As stated in the Lok Sabha on 4 February 2025
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs / DRDO / PIB — border fencing, smart fencing (CIBMS), counter-drone and border-village milestones, 2018–2026. · link