A 736 km-long barbwire fence will be erected along the Tripura-Bangladesh border by 2007 to check infiltration and smuggling, Border Security Force Director General Rajsekhar Mushari said on Tuesday.

"It's a known fact that members of different north-eastern militant outfits move into the state from Bangladesh and fencing the border will check these movements," he said. "Past experiences show that the fencing has yielded results."

Tripura shares an 840 km-long border with Bangladesh.

Mushari was speaking in Agartala after visiting the border areas of West Tripura, where fencing work has already started.

A number of people will have to be evicted from there, he said, adding they will be rehabilitated.

"I do not know about the fate of those people who would be left on the other side of the fence," Mushari added.

"The state and central governments should take the decision about them. The BSF would arrange for their security if they live on our side of the fence," he said.

BSF, the nodal agency for erecting the fence, had earlier said that over 40,000 people would be left on the other side as it is being constructed 150 yards away from the zero line to adhere to the Indira-Mujib pact of 1971.

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