DSC_0054 (1), a photo by Chindits on Flickr.
The
31st Annual Coast Guard Commanders’ Conference was inaugurated by the
Hon’ble Raksha Mantri Shri AK Antony at 0900 hrs on 20 Sep 12 at New
Delhi. The conference has been scheduled for three days and will help
the Coast Guard Commanders in analysis of the operational capabilities,
deployment of forces and preparations for the future challenges. The
Commanders will introspect the standards achieved in the wide spectrum
of Coast Guard responsibilities.
Speaking at the
inauguration, the Hon’ble Raksha Mantri Shri AK Antony complimented all
the Coast Guard personnel for their commitment, courage and involvement
while discharging their duties. He highlighted that issue of coastal
security will continue to occupy a prominent position in our national
security matrix. The role of fishing community is vital in
strengthening of coastal security mechanism. Community interaction
programmes to be given impetus in order to sensitize the fishing
community on the prevailing security situation and to develop them to
be the “eyes and ears” for intelligence gathering.
The
Director General, Indian Coast Guard, Vice Admiral MP Muralidharan,
AVSM, NM in his address highlighted the progress made by the Coast
Guard in acquisition cases of various types of ships and aircrafts,
development of infrastructure, induction of manpower in the service and
enhanced efforts for surveillance of the coast and the sea areas. 01
PCV, 04 IPVs, 02 ACVs, 01 IB and 04 ICs have been inducted into the
service. The Coast Guard aims to achieve a force level of 150 surface
platforms by the year 2018.
01 RHQ (North East) and 05
Stations (ICGS Dahanu, Androth, Krishnapatnam, Karaikal &
Kolkata) have been established till date. The remaining 06 sanctioned
stations at Pipavav, Nizampatnam, Gopalpur, Frazerganj, Mayabunder
& Kamorta are slated to be established by Mar 2013. One Dornier
Squadron has been established at Porbandar since the last Commanders'
Conference. Establishing of 02 Air Stations, 05 Air Enclaves and 04
Dornier Squadrons has also been prioritized.
Coast
Guard has been putting up concentrated efforts towards setting up of
Coastal Surveillace Network (CSN) and as a part of this CSN network
Maharashtra cluster, Gujarat cluster and Kerala cluster has been
commissioned. The setting up of CSN will enhance the electronic
surveillance capability of the Coast Guard. The surveillace Network is
an important component of coastal security mechanism, which will ensure
identification and monitoring of maritime traffic. The phase – I of
project is envisaged to be completed on Mainland and Islands by end Oct
12 and Mar 13 respectively.
During the last one year,
a total of 348 precious lives were saved, out of which 210 lives were
rescued by Indian Coast Guard independently and remaining 138 lives
were saved in coordination with various maritime agencies. The coastal
security mechanism has been fine tuned for optimum response to maritime
threats through regular exercises & operations. 67 Coastal
Security exercises and 58 Coastal Security operations have been
conducted in consultation with Central/State agencies.
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