Call it a fallout of the recent Mumbai terror attack or mere coincidence,the Centre has finally responded to the Gujarat Zone Customs long-pending demand of extra patrolling vessels to guard the 1,600-km coastline of the state. The Centre has recently allotted 13 additional vessels of different sizes for the Zone. Of these,eight have already arrived and have been deployed at different strategic locations. The first set of vessels had arrived in December last year. We are expecting the remaining five to reach here within a few months, said Ajit Kumar,Customs Chief Commissioner for Gujarat Zone. It took the Centre over 15 years to acknowledge the Gujarat Zone Customs requirement,as the latter had sought more patrolling vessels soon after the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. A portion of the RDX used in the blasts was believed to have had landed at Gosabara in Gujarat in 1992. The allotted vessels,officials said,include three 20-metre long boats,ideal for high sea patrolling. The rest are 12-metre,nine-metre and six-metre long vessels. All these vessels are of Malaysian make, officials said. Alarmed by the hijack of Indian fishing trawler Kuber by the terrorists who used it to reach Mumbai on November 26,the Zone has already guarded two of the three sectors under it by deploying these vessels. We have deployed these vessels near Umargaon in Valsad and Okha in Jamnagar for the south Gujarat and Saurashtra sectors respectively. The third vessel will be deployed near Jakhau for the Kutch sector and is expected to arrive shortly, Kumar said. He added: It is a four-tier security arrangement under the joint coastal policing scheme. The 20,12,9 and 6 metre boats are meant for different areas making it a foolproof security arrangement. The Gujarat Customs Zone covers a 1,660-km long coastline,which is roughly 20 per cent of the total coastline of the country. The Zone has three commissionerates at Ahmedabad,Jamnagar and Kandla-Kutch. There are 37 fully functional Customs stations,which include 12 ports,one Foreign Post Office and one Air Cargo Complex. Main ports under the jurisdiction of this Zone include Kandla,Mundra,Pipavav,Dahej and Hazira. The biggest ship-breaking yard in the country at Alang in Bhavnagar and an internationally known diamond bourse,the Surat Hira Bourse come under the zones jurisdiction.
