Helsinki, April 15 : Finland is building a fence on its border with Russia, the country's Border Guard said in a press statement. Finland's Parliament reached a consensus on the construction of the fence in 2022 and granted funding for the project. Work started in February this year. The fence is to cover nearly 200 kilometre of the country's 1,300-kilometre eastern border, Xinhua news agency reported. The project, to be completed by 2026, includes a steel mesh fence, an adjacent road, a deforested opening and a technical surveillance system. The overall cost is 380 million euros ($418 million). A three-kilometre pilot version of the fence near the southeastern town of Imatra is scheduled to be completed in June. The next 75-kilometre stretch of the fence will be built near the Salla international border crossing in Lapland between August and November 2023. /IANS