No trade for four months, Rs 9-cr CCTVs come up at Attari border

The Centre has installed state-of-the-art high-definition CCTV cameras worth Rs 9 crore at the Integrated Check Post (ICP) here even as there has been no trade from the check post for the past nearly four months.

The Land Port Authority of India (LPAI) handles cargo at the ICP, which is situated at the Attari-Wagah joint check post.

Two days after the Pahalgam terror attack on tourists, which had taken place on April 22, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had recommended the closure of the Attari-Wagah border. It halted the ICP’s only earning — the duty charged on goods imported from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

Before the trade embargo between India and Pakistan in August 2019, one-fourth (Rs 4,476 crore) of their total trade of Rs 17,903 crore used to take place via the ICP-Attari.

Suraj Bhan, manager of LPAI, said revenue or no revenue, they could not lower the guard, given the strategic importance of the place and state-of-the-art infrastructure there. Over 200 high-definition CCTV cameras have been equipped with a siren system. An alarm would set off in the control system set up in a room if a person tries to scale the boundary wall of the ICP from any direction or a vehicle with fake number enters the premises. Officials said any unspecified object lying unattended for a long time in the ICP and a large group of people trying to gain entry into the ICP at a given time would also trigger the alarm, drawing immediate attention of the security forces.

This is the only trading land route between India and Taliban-ruled country. Before the Pahalgam attack, the ICP was permitted to receive only import from Afghanistan, for which Pakistan offered the transit facility. The ICP had recorded the highest import (over Rs 3,700 crore) in 2023-24 since its opening 12 years ago. During the last financial year, the ICP had facilitated imports of 1,83,975 MT from the landlocked country.