The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) will set up three new stations along the coast of Maharashtra,at Murud village in Raigad district,Dahanu in Thane district and Ratnagiri. A timeframe for the stations in Ratnagiri and Dahanu has not yet been decided,the one at Murud will be functional within six months,a senior Coast Guard official said. The Coast Guard also aims to double its manpower and infrastructure base in three-four years and triple it in a decade,said Director-General,ICG,Anil Chopra. Chopra was in Mumbai to observe a pollution control exercise by the Coast Guard. The government has sanctioned a large number of projects to enhance manpower and infrastructure. However these will take time due to limitations on training of manpower and building logistics, he said. Chopra said coordination between various maritime agencies and the Navy has improved tremendously after the 26/11 attacks. In my 35 years of service,I have never seen such effective coordination, he said. The locations for the new Coast Guard stations have been selected in view of the fact that local marine police stations are coming up in the area. Murud-Janjira,which is a deep estuary or a semi-enclosed coastal body of water,has long stretches where it is difficult to spot an intruder. Fishermen in that area are rarely checked, said the official. The Cost Guard at present has 50 patrolling vessels,22 interceptor vessels and 45 surveillance aircraft including helicopters. We aim to stabilise at about 100 patrolling vessels. Fifty vessels are being built indigenously across the country now, said Chopra. The fourth arm of the armed forces will be seen increasing its manpower by roughly one-third in the next two years. The current strength,according to Inspector General,Western Region,S P S Basra,is about 7,000; the sanctioned strength has been increased to above 11,000. With three new stations coming up,the Coast Guard expects to enhance its surveillance capabilities in the sensitive coastal zones of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Also,the station coming up at Dahanu,which is less than 500 nautical miles from Karachi,makes it a very important station strategically and will help them monitor fishermen as well.
