JAIPUR, India, Sept 19 (Reuter) India plans to spend $20 million to erect
floodlights along a 1,040 kilometre (646 mile) stretch of fenced border
with rival Pakistan, authorities said on Friday.

India has already put up barbedwire fencing along a 728 km (452 mile)
section of the border in Rajasthan state and the rest will soon be fenced,
a state police spokesman told Reuters in the state capital Jaipur.

P.N. Bhandari, chairman of the Rajasthan electricity board, said the state
would put up floodlights along the entire fence at a cost of 700 million
rupees. The work will be completed by the end of next year, he said.

The lights will help authorities check the movement of drug runners,
Bhandari said.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars, including two in the Rajasthan
desert.

Their armed forces have engaged in regular crossborder artillery battles
in past months in the disputed territory of Kashmir.