India will fence its 1,610 km border with neighboring Myanmar to "prevent smuggling and other illegal activities".
The government plans to spend $3.7 billion on the process, which will be completed over the next decade, according to sources familiar with the matter.
New Delhi announced earlier this year that it would fence its border with Myanmar for "national security" and to "protect the demographic structure of the northeastern region".
India also announced that it would end its decades-long visa-free travel policy with the country ruled by the junta after a military coup.
An unnamed Indian source said a government committee had approved the cost of the fence in March.
However, the budget must also be approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the cabinet.
The committee of senior Indian officials also agreed to build parallel roads along the fence and 1,700 km of feeder roads connecting military bases to the border, the source told Reuters.
The fence and the adjacent road will cost about 125 million rupees (1.5 million dollars) per km because the terrain is rugged and technology will be used to prevent infiltration and erosion, the source said.
Myanmar has not commented on India's plan. However, as it is a national border issue, it needs to make an official statement.
Since the military coup in Myanmar in 2021, thousands of civilians and hundreds of soldiers have fled to the Indian side, where people on both sides of the border share ethnic and familial ties.
This has alarmed New Delhi because of the risk of communal tensions spilling over into India.
Some members of the Indian government have warned that the porous border is exacerbating the tense situation in the Indian state of Manipur, which borders Myanmar.
For the past year, Manipur has been facing a civil war-like situation between two ethnic groups of the same ancestry as the Chin tribe from Myanmar.
