‘Triangular security grid’ will secure sensitive Siliguri Corridor, says Shah
Times of India | 22 August 2026
Siliguri: Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday highlighted the easing of the border land deadlock with a BJP govt in office in Bengal and said a special “triangular security grid” would be set up to secure the strategically sensitive Siliguri Corridor or ‘Chicken’s Neck’.
Speaking at a Sashastra Seema Bal event in Siliguri, Shah said: “This Siliguri Corridor is one of the most sensitive areas that connects eight states and is crucial to national security. We have prepared a (defence) triangle grid comprising three new military garrisons at Dhubri (Assam), Kishanganj (Bihar) and Chopra (West Bengal).”
While military exercises like ‘Teesta Prahar’ are being conducted to maintain preparedness and secure the vital region, Shah added that the “grid” would significantly strengthen surveillance, military presence and administrative control in the region.
Siliguri Corridor is strategically important because of its proximity to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, and its role as the principal land link between northeastern states and the rest of India.
Shah said the newly elected BJP govt handed over 1,129 acres to BSF and SSB within 45 days of assuming office. The state on Friday agreed to hand over the remaining 29 acres required for fencing the India-Bangladesh border.
“We requested former CM Mamata Banerjee several times to provide land to agencies like BSF for fencing the India-Bangladesh border. Once I went to her office and requested her with folded hands. She didn’t listen to us,” Shah said.
BJP, in its 2026 assembly poll manifesto, promised to provide land to BSF within 45 days of assuming office. Lauding the role of CM Suvendu Adhikari, Shah said: “I keep talking to the CM on a number of issues. Now, 29 acres of land was remaining to be handed over. I mentioned that during breakfast and he instantly said it will be done.”
Bengal can be safe only when infiltration is stopped, Shah said, adding that “any govt should realise agencies like BSF and SSB are beyond politics or policy”.
Shah’s announcement came at SSB’s North Bengal Frontier headquarters at Ranidanga, where he laid foundation stones for and inaugurated several administrative and residential projects worth nearly Rs 189 crore.
Adhikari, Darjeeling MP Raju Bista, Union home secretary Gaurav Mohan, Intelligence Bureau director Mahesh Dixit, department of border management secretary Rajendra Kumar, SSB director general Sanjay Singhal and other senior Union home ministry officials were present at the programme.
Praising SSB, Shah said since its establishment in 1965, its personnel have rendered exemplary service in different parts of the country, including Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir and Tripura.
Following Kargil War, under the ‘One Border, One Force’ policy, SSB has been guarding the 1,751-km India-Nepal border since 2001 and the 700-km India-Bhutan border since 2004.
The Ranidanga programme also saw the inauguration of a newly constructed administrative building on 80 acres of SSB land, along with facilities linked to 19th Battalion at Thakurganj, the 12th Battalion at Kishanganj and New Jalpaiguri Transit Camp.
Speaking about I-Day, Shah said: “Since 2015, I have been present every year when the PM hoists the national flag at Red Fort, but this year was historic. Because, 80 years after Independence, the entire ‘Vande Mataram’ was heard from Red Fort by people of India and people of the world.”
He said Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s immortal composition had not only given momentum to freedom movement but also helped define the objective of cultural nationalism in independent India.
The Union home minister also spoke about PM Narendra Modi’s vision of building a ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047, outlining seven major pillars which he referred to as ‘Sapt Dhara’. “Manufacturing power, defence strength, agriculture and food processing, green and blue economy, technology and innovation, India’s soft power and the infrastructure strength of Gati Shakti — these seven pillars will take India to the top of the world when we celebrate 100 years of Independence,” he said.