In 3 yrs of 26/11, Mumbai Police bought 46 boats to track city’s coast — only 8 work today

In less than 15 years, 38 of them stand defunct, The Indian Express has found.

The 10 Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists from Pakistan travelled from Karachi across the Arabian Sea — hijacking a fishing trawler off Porbandar — to reach Mumbai’s coast  at Budhwar Park on November 26, 2008. Just before the 26/11 terror attacks, which killed 160 people and left over 300 injured, Mumbai Police had only four fiberglass boats to patrol the waters off the city.

Taking note of the inadequacy of resources, the state government subsequently sanctioned a proposal to buy high-speed boats. Indeed, the High-Level Enquiry Committee (HLEC) — also known as the Pradhan Inquiry Commission — to probe the security forces’ response to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks flagged this shortage and need.

Police officials confirm that over the next three years after the attacks, the department procured 46 boats: 23 speed boats, 19 amphibious boats and four other “Sealeg” boats — an advanced amphibious craft.

Sources said that the speed boats were bought to carry out patrolling in the sea round the clock but these boats could not reach the shore. However amphibious boats could operate both on land — near the coast — and water. These were obtained with the purpose that the police’s movements were not restricted and that these boats could help them monitor and track suspects on sea as well as in the area hugging the land.

Today, however, only eight speed boats remain functional, all 19 amphibious boats and four Sealegs are defunct.

“The amphibious boats and four Sealegs were procured from a company in New Zealand and we were to send our personnel there to get know how and training in repairing these boats. However, things did not work out and the boats started developing snags due to which a majority of them are no longer operational,” said a senior police officer.

There were serious question marks over the efficacy of the 23 speed boats. In fact, officials said, the engines of 13 speed boats were allegedly replaced with old and weak engines during maintenance work by some contractors. An inquiry was conducted following which an FIR was registered and the case of alleged corruption in running the coastal patrolling boats was handed over to the Economic Offence Wing of the Mumbai police in 2022.

The FIR read, “The contractors had removed the original, powerful engines of the patrolling boats and fitted old and weak engines and charged the government for installing new engines as per its cost for wrongful gains.”

Two other speed boats are currently under maintenance, said an official.

With just eight functional boats, the Motor Vehicle department of the Mumbai police has now submitted a proposal to the Home Department requesting for 22 more boats. The officials said that 12 of them shall be used for coastal patrolling, while eight boats are interceptors and two are hovercraft.

Officials said that while the first proposal is at the final stage of clearance, the department has moved a second proposal with the state government to modernize 13 of the existing 23 speed boats.

“We intend to update the engines of these boats that will help us increase its speed. We will also be replacing the navigation and GPS system with the advance technology and modernisation of each boat will cost around 73 lakh,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Nimba Patil from Motor Vehicle department.

He added: “On a trial basis, we even modernized one of our speed boats named ‘Mumbai-2’ and along with our proposal we have also submitted its 100-hour report to the government.”

Another proposal that has been sent is for Rs 34-crore to build a jetty, repair yard and administrative building.

“Currently, we are carrying out operations and other repair work in an open area inside the premises of the police launch section. So we want the government to take cognizance of this and provide us with a building or some structure to ensure that our work is not hampered,” an official added.