ISLAMABAD, July 1: Borders’ surveillance equipment including three fixed-wings planes and five armed helicopters may reach Pakistan within the next 48 hours, Dawn reliably learnt.

A well-placed defence source stated that a huge transport plane carrying $73 million equipment had already left the US.

The equipment is being supplied by the United States as a part of the ongoing cooperation in the war against terrorism.

The equipment, the source said, would be shifted to Quetta where the preparation were under way to impart training to the officers and soldiers of Pakistan Army who would be deployed at the western borders to check the cross-border movement of the Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

The plane bringing the defence equipment could land only at Karachi’s Quaid-i-Azam International Airport, Islamabad International Airport or at the Chaklala Airbase as, according to the sources, no other airport in the country could sustain landing of such a heavy transport aircraft.

The surveillance equipment was supposed to be delivered to the Pakistan security agencies by mid-June, but owing to some unknown reasons it delayed with the indication that the consignment would not reach till the mid-July.

The recent killings of 10 Pakistani troops in a clash with Al-Qaeda men in the NWFP might have been a consideration for rushing the equipment, a source said.

The issue of delay in the delivery of the equipment had also been raised by Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider in official talks during the visit of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

In the meanwhile, delivery of other equipment including 150 motorcycles, four-wheel-drive vehicles and other communication tools had already begun, the source said. International tenders for the procurement of the vehicles were floated last month.

The Frontier Constabulary of Balochistan and the NWFP have been directed to prepare reports for setting up check-posts at the border. Under the plan several check posts, each with the estimated $1 million, would be established all along the 2,500km-long border with Afghanistan.

The newly-designated US Ambassador to Pakistan, Nancy Powell, on Tuesday morning called on Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider to discuss various aspect of bilateral ties particularly with reference to the ongoing cooperation in war against terrorism, another source said.