The India-Bangladesh border in Tripura will be completely fenced by next year to ensure fool-proof security, a top BSF official said on Saturday.

Border Security Force Inspector General (Tripura Frontier), Sushanta Kumar Nath, said that 80-85 per cent of the 856-km-long India-Bangladesh international border in the north-eastern state has already been fenced.

“Substantial fencing work has been done in the Tripura’s eastern sector last year, and work on a 31-km porous stretch has been taken up on a priority basis. Single row fencing has gained momentum in the state’s western sector, and 10 km was fenced last year,” he told reporters.

Setting up of floodlights is going hand-in-hand with fencing work, he said.

“We are hopeful of completing fencing and setting up of floodlights along the entire stretch of the India-Bangladesh border in the state by next year,” he said.

Highlighting the BSF’s achievement in containing insurgency in Tripura, he said that 31 NLFT insurgents have surrendered to the border guards since 2017.

“Two more militants of proscribed outfit National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) surrendered to the BSF today. One of them had undergone arms training,” he said.

The BSF arrested 218 people for sneaking across the international border, and seized contraband items worth Rs 35.64 crore last year, he added.