Border: After completion of repair and reconstruction works, 48 Bhutan-India boundary pillars along the border under the Chukha-Alipurduar segment of the Bhutan-West Bengal sector were handed over to local authorities of Bhutan and India yesterday.

Survey of India and international boundary officials handed over the pillars to the Phuentsholing dungkhag and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Falakatta.

The pillars fall under the boundary stretch between Pasakha and Amochhu.

This comes after a successful technical meeting held in November 2015. Officials from the two countries decided to resume the pending work to repair, maintain, and reconstruct boundary pillars wherever necessary in three segments along the two countries’ border.

A month later, the technical meeting of international boundaries officials and teams from Bhutan met with their Indian counterparts in December.  The modality to go about the work was later confirmed.

A survey engineer with the international boundaries, Dorji Tashi, said the 48 pillars are from one segment of the Bhutan-West Bengal sector. “These were the pillars that were identified jointly for repair and reconstruction work. Some pillars were repaired, while some had to be reconstructed.”

SSB had taken the task to construct the pillars for the first time.

In the Bhutan-West Bengal sector, there is also the Samtse-Alipurduar segment. About 113 boundary pillars have been handed over to the relevant authorities after repair.

The work for the Bhutan-Arunachal Pradesh sector has also been completed and handed over to the local authorities. More than 90 boundary pillars were repaired and reconstructed.

Bhutan-Sikkim is another sector between the two neighbouring countries. There are 1,985 pillars along the boundary.

Rajesh Rai | Phuentsholing