Nepal plans to use drones for surveillance along border with India

Home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa said that while the Indian side had security posts every kilometre, the distance between two nearest posts on the Nepali side is 25 kilometres.

Nepal will deploy drones to patrol its border with India, home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa said on Tuesday.

Nepal plans to deploy drones to patrol its border with India. (AFP File Photo/For Representation)

Announcing a 82-point programme of the home ministry, Thapa, also a senior Maoist leader, told the media that “the home ministry is introducing new guidelines on using drones, and it was now essential to use drones at Nepal-India border for patrolling.”

Thapa said that on the Indian side, there are security posts every kilometre, whereas the distance between two nearest posts on the Nepali side is 25 kilometres.

“We do not have sufficient human resources to address this problem. Therefore, we will now use drones,” Thapa was quoted as saying by onlinekhabar, a Nepalese news portal.

Nepal and India share more than 17,000-km open border.