An invisible laser fence is the latest tool in the hands of Indian Army’s Northern Command to secure the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir from intruders across the border.

Developed by scientists at the Laser Science and Technology Centre, Delhi the invisible barrier would allow the border sentry sitting inside his post to find out whether anyone was walking or crawling into the Indian territory.

For better performance, the command post with a display unit would have to be located at distance of 400-500 mt from the fence. At a greater distance, the performance is compromised.

The moment someone – a human being or animals like a cattle – crosses the laser fence, an alarm is sounded inside the post. A visual of the intruder appears on the display unit too.

“The systems were evaluated in the Northern Command when Gen D S Hooda was the GOC. Subsequently, the Northern Command placed an order for 40 systems that we supplied,” one of the LASTEC officials, who don’t wish to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media, told DH on the sidelines of the Indian Science Congress here.

The laser fence that has day/night operability can also be used to check intrusion across the river. During the trial phase, one such system was tried in Tawi river in Jammu region. Near a river, the fence is installed on a cemented pedestal.

Following the laser fence system’s success in Jammu and Kashmir, LASTEC – one of the laboratories under Defence Research and Development Organisation - received orders from Central Reserve Police Force for deployment of such fences in the Naxal-hit areas of Bijapur in Chhattisgarh. The CRPF ordered 20 such systems, out of five have been supplied.

Indian Navy too had placed orders for a couple of systems to check intrusion of animals in its airbase INS Hansa in Goa.

While the system comes with high reliability and low false alarm rate, one of the shortcomings is that it requires line of sight for work, preventing its deployment in mountains and forested areas. Each of the system along with necessary electronics cost about Rs 1.5 lakh.

Those deployed on the LoC is run on a battery which is being powered by the electricity being provided to the LoC fence. Along with the fence, the laser barrier forms a two-tier security system at India’s disputed border with Pakistan.

“We transferred the technology last month to Bharat Electronics Limited and Central Electronics Limited for commercial manufacturing of the unit,” he said.