SSB guarding Nepal Bhutan borders equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment Govt

New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) The Sashastra Seema Bal has equipped itself with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, including UAVs, micro UAVs, and automatic face recognition with auto number-plate recognition, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
    The force is tasked with guarding India's 2,400-kilometre border with Nepal and Bhutan.
    In a written response to a question, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, said that in the past 10 years -- from 2015-16 to 2025-26 -- the Sashastra Seema Bal has been allotted Rs 5,001.63 crore.
    Out of that, Rs 4,775.11 crore has been spent so far, and more funds will be utilised by the end of this financial year, he said.
    Rai said a central sector scheme -- Modernisation Plan for all the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), including Sashastra Seema Bal -- is also underway to improve the efficiency and performance of each CAPF through the induction of state-of-the-art equipment in weaponry, communication, protective gears, surveillance and border guarding systems, training items, armoured vehicles and special transport vehicles.
    "Modernisation of forces and procurement of the latest and state-of-the-art equipment is an ongoing process. So, a specific timeline cannot be given," Rai said in response to the question of whether any specific targets have been fixed to strengthen SSB's manpower, training, and operational capacity under these modernisation programmes.
    "Moving towards modernisation, Sashastra Seema Bal has procured unmanned aerial vehicles, micro unmanned aerial vehicles, hand-held thermal imager, CCTV surveillance setup with automatic face recognition system with auto number-plate recognition and satellite phones for surveillance and modernisation of the force," he said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)