The Thai Army has installed the first solar-powered CCTV equipment at the border fence in Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo province, opposite Cambodia’s Poipet, as an initial part of its plan to build a 23.6km-long border fence.
The equipment includes three surveillance cameras, one with pan-tilt-zoom functionality and two fixed cameras, which can monitor areas at some distance, especially the Crown casino, which is just across the border.
The CCTV system has a 30-day memory card, which will record the outputs of all the cameras monitoring the vicinity of Klong Loek checkpoint, enabling the Thai military to keep a constant vigil over the border situation.
Maj-Gen Wit Laithomya, spokesman for the Thai Army, said that the permanent border fence will be built on undisputed land along the common border, adding that the first phase will cover a distance of 23.6km in Aranyaprathet.
For border areas still in dispute, he said that, instead of building a fence, the Thai Army will deploy regular patrols along the border, to prevent illegal border crossings or trespassing by Cambodian troops or civilians.
