Fencing along the 490 km Line-of-Control in Jammu and Kashmir will be completed by March next and the demining of the Indo-Pak border areas in the state by December next year, Chief of Army Staff General N C Vij said on Saturday.

"We are focussing on the completion of the border fencing along the LoC, where maximum infiltration is taking place," he told a press conference in Jammu.
 
The army chief said fencing along a 100-km stretch of LoC has already been completed and work is on in full gear to complete the rest of it.

Fencing along the LoC had started in February last in the Poonch-Uri Sector.
 
Around 80 km of the International Border has already been fenced in Jammu.

On demining of the border areas, the army chief said: "Our troops are working hard to remove mines from the border belt in J&K and the entire belt along the International Border would be demined by December 2004."

While the border belt north of Chenab will be cleared by 2003, that from Chenab to Basantar area in Jammu sector will be demined by February 2003, he said.

The area from Basantar to Punjab in Kathua sector will be demined by December 2003.