MSF to guard 8 vulnerable landing points on coastline

There are 109 landing points in the city where boats coming from the sea can be moored, as per police. “While all of the landing points are covered under CCTV surveillance, the special committee recently classified 17 of them as ‘A category’ through which infiltration can happen,” said an officer.

The committee further identified that eight of them — Budhwar Park, Geeta Nagar, Ganesh Murthi Nagar, Bandra Sea Link Jetty, Juhu Chowpatty, Gorai, Manori and Versova beach —are vulnerable and there is need to further enhance security at those landing points due to which it was decided to guard them with security personnel round-the-clock, a senior police officer said.

An officer said, “The MSF will provide security at each of these points. It has also been decided that the fisheries department will bear the cost of their services.”

A bill for an advance payment has been issued by the MSF and as soon as they pay, a security audit shall be conducted through which the number of security personnel to be assigned at each point shall be decided, the officer added.

The department is also planning to instil a drone system with infra red night vision cameras to enhance security. “The first trial of the drone system was conducted on November 22 at Bhaucha Dakka in South Mumbai. It went well, however, we will conduct a few more tests before taking a decision to buy a drone which will cost us around Rs 1 crore,” said an officer.

The officials added that the purpose of having a drone in the system is that it will help in checking secluded and marshy areas as well.

“Our patrolling boats cannot go everywhere in the sea as they are not able to enter the marshy areas. In such locations where we cannot physically enter and check, we can use drones to look for any unusual activity,” an officer added.

Claiming that the Mumbai coastline is safe, a senior police officer said that they have been carrying out coastal security exercises like the Sagar Kavach, Sea Vigil and Operation Prasthan on a regular basis.

“On November 16 and 17, we conducted Sagar Kavach —a mock drill on tackling infiltrators who enter via sea route using defence forces along with local police. With advance technology, we managed to locate them at Yellow Gate and Colaba’s Sassoon dock and stopped them from entering,” said an officer.

“Apart from the shortage of boats, everything is in place, and we have been carrying out patrolling in the sea throughout the day. Training and meetings with defence forces are also done periodically,” said another officer.