In the period 2010-2013 the Sør-Varanger Garrison (GSV), which is both headquarter and training school for the border guard service, will go through major changes, local newspaper Sør-Varanger Avis reports.
Parts of the garrison were built in the 1950’s and have been ready for modernization a long time. Next year the building of a 7.8 million EUR barracks for 200 persons and a new kitchen and mess hall with the same price-tag is planned to start.
The Sør-Varanger Garrison including the borders stations has about 600 soldiers and officers.
The whole border guard station infrastructure along the border to Russia will also be radically changed in the near future. Today there are six stations along the 196 kilometers long border, but from 2013 there will only be two large stations. One will be build at Svanvik in the southern parts of the border strip, while the other will be located close to the Storskog border crossing point. Each of the new stations will cost 12.8 million EUR.
- The six existing stations were built in the 1950’s and 1960’s. They are out of date, too small and not adapted to our needs now, said Major Harald Enebakk at GSV to Sør-Varanger Avis. The way we operate along the border today, we only need to larger stations in addition to the existing surveillance towers and patrol cabins.
The upgrading of the border guard facilities is part of Norway’s responsibilities as an outer border of the Schengen area. Norway is the only country in the Schengen area that uses military soldiers in the border guard service.
