Border Security Force (BSF) locations along the Line of Control (LoC) will be getting a steel makeover as the BSF embarks on a major project to fortify defences and enhance living facilities for troops, Kashmir Observer reported on November 21. These deployments are called Forward Defence Locations (FDLs), and the border force guards, either jointly with the Army or independently, over 430 kilometres of the total 772-km-long LoC that falls in Jammu and Kashmir. The FDLs are located in extreme forward snow-bound or dense jungle areas of the LoC and are part of India's anti-infiltration grid to thwart militant activities being conducted from across this un-demarcated frontier. Behind the FDLs on the Indian side are multiple rings of the Army's counter-infiltration deployments. Official sources in the security establishment told PTI that the BSF will convert about 115 of its FDLs to large steel (alloy of iron and carbon) compartments with an overall layout of around Rs 35 crore. The decision was taken after BSF Director General (DG) Pankaj Kumar Singh recently visited the FDLs in Kashmir and reviewed their operational preparedness.