Pan India coastal security exercise to be held on Tue-Wed

In order to strengthen thecoastal defence mechanism, the Indian Navy and Coast Guardwill conduct a coastal security exercise named 'Sea Vigil' onTuesday and Wednesday, an official said.

This is the second edition of the largest coastaldefence exercise being conducted pan India in all coastalstates and union territories, the official said.

Aiming to validate the efficacy of the country'scoastal defence, the exercise would involve participation ofall stakeholders, said Captain Ajay Yadav, Command CoastalSecurity Officer at HQ Western Naval Command.

The exercise will be conducted under the aegis ofNaval Headquarters, Western Naval Command Headquarters,Eastern Naval Command, Southern Naval command and Andaman andNicobar Command.

It will have the participation of the Navy, Indian AirForce, Coast Guard, NSG, BSF, Police, Customs, CISF,Fisheries, DG Shipping, Port Trusts, SIDS, Oil HandlingAgencies etc, he added.

The exercise will see extensive utilisation oftechnological infrastructure, and effectiveness of the fishingcommunity in serving as the ''eyes and ears'' for early threatwarning will also be assessed, he said.

''Coordination with various stakeholders, seamless flowof information, sharing intelligence inputs with relevantsecurity authorities and implementation of best practices willbe exercised. SOPs for contingencies will be validated. Theexercise will help to identify and plus gaps in coastalsecurity,'' he said.

He said space-based Automatic Information System (AIS)has been installed on the ships for real time monitoring bythe Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) atGurugram and the information will be relayed to various JointOperation Centres (JOC).

Around 3.5 lakh fishing boats, which are less than 20meters are not mandated to install the AIS, and these vesselspose a challenge, though the process of their registration andgiving them colour codes is underway, he added.

Over 2500 community interaction programmes have beenconducted with the fishing community since 2009 by the Navyand Coast Guard, he said.

To strengthen coastal security, at least 46 radarstations have been installed and installation of 38 more isnearing completion, and eight mobile surveillance systems havealso been set up, the official said.

Operation Sagar Kavach is being conducted since 2009to check the preparedness of coastal security, and at least240 operations have been conducted, he said.

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