Tired of waiting,Mumbai Police ready for minor boat repairs in city

Frustrated by lengthy delays in maintenance and repair work,the Mumbai Police’s coastal policing wing has now decided to set up a repairing centre in the city for its high-end speed boats and amphibious sealegs. The new facility would ensure timely maintenance of these craft in the city itself,instead of having to send them to their manufacturers at the Goa Shipyard. The repairing facility for minor technical snags will be opened at the Mumbai Port Trust.

“Earlier,even if a speed boat had a minor defect we had to send it to the Goa Shipyard which is responsible for the maintenance works. However,the shipyard takes months to repair minor defect,thus affecting patrolling,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Port Zone) Quaiser Khalid.

“This problem will be solved now as we will repair minor faults in Mumbai itself instead of sending the boats to Goa. We have opened a repairing centre in a corner of the Mumbai Port Trust premises where our engineers will identify the problem in a boat,and if it is minor one,repair it themselves. The boats will be sent to Goa only if the problem is major,” added Khalid.

According to the police,Mumbai’s coast is polluted with plastic and is rocky due to which the speedboats get damaged fast.“We have been writing to the shipyard to open a repairing centre in Mumbai which they were supposed to,but they have not paid heed to our demand,” said Khalid. Goa Shipyard officials were not available for comment.