Ahmedabad, 3 December 2012

According to PTI report, India will soon erect a ‘floating fence’, anchored by submerged metallic meshes, along the disputed Sir Creek and Harami nala border area with Pakistan in Kutch, Gujarat. The Union Home Ministry has entrusted the CPWD and NBCC to install an all-weather ‘gabion box’ fence along the stretch. The project would have an estimated cost of about Rs 1,200 crore.

The 96-km strip in the Rann of Kutch marshes is patrolled round-the-clock by BSF marine commandos called Crocodiles.

While the National Buildings Construction Corporation will erect the fence on about 75 km of the watery strip, the Central Public Works Department has already started work in the rest of the area.

A ‘gabion box’ is a meshed metallic box-like structure with hexagonal wire nettings and it is lowered down the bed of the water body after big stones are filled inside it.

The Sir Creek area is characteristic with shallow and slushy water and these boxes would be the best material to be sunk under water considering the difficulty of the terrain to execute such a difficult project. The ‘gabion box’ is a regular technology used for flood water control and prevention of rock breaking along coasts by the impact of the saline ocean water.