Bihar: Shah to inaugurate SSB border outpost in Araria, review Vibrant Villages Programme progress

Patna, Feb 26 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to inaugurate a Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) border outpost in Bihar’s Araria district on Thursday, and review security and infrastructure along the India-Nepal boundary, officials said.

Shah will also interact with residents living along border areas and review progress of the Vibrant Villages Programme in the afternoon, they said.

The home minister arrived in Bihar on Wednesday on a three-day tour during which he is expected to attend several functions in the strategically located Seemanchal region, besides reviewing "demographic changes" in the area, the officials said.

On Wednesday, he chaired a meeting of the Land Ports Authority of India, a statutory body functioning under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

Shah is also likely to hold a meeting with officials of the departments responsible for guarding the porous border with Nepal.

This is the first Bihar visit of Shah after November, 2025, when he attended the swearing-in ceremony of the new Nitish Kumar cabinet following the NDA's landslide victory in the assembly polls.

He will wind up his Bihar tour on Friday with a visit to Purnea, from where he is scheduled to board his return flight.

"Union Home Minister Amit Shah's tour of Seemanchal is a decisive step in the direction of strengthening national security. It is a strategically important region, by virtue of its proximity to Nepal and Bangladesh and presents challenges with regard to maintaining an intelligence network and demographic balance," state BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel had said in a statement.

Located in the north-eastern extreme of Bihar, Seemanchal is a densely populated, but flood-prone and impoverished area, situated close to the border with Nepal and West Bengal. PTI PKD RBT