Navy and Coast Guard failed to detect the 1,000-tonne MT Pavit
The cabinet committee on security created after the 26/11 terror attacks had several measures planned for the state and central agencies to ensure there is no lapse in sea security.
Though some of these measures have been initiated and also put into practice, many of the important ones are yet to be implemented.
In Maharashtra, which has a long coastline and has been one of the biggest victims of terror attacks launched through sea, identification of several unmanned landing points is to be carried out, but a complete report is still awaited. Creating chowkies manned by policemen at all these landing points was to be done, which is yet to be initiated except at a few places in the state.
Another major proposal was to give transponders and navigational communication systems to fishermen for identification of their vessels, but is yet to be carried out. Though identity cards have been issued to fishermen, in terms of technological advancement and measures for sea security and identification, the government is yet to initiate any action. Also, employment of more trained personnel for the marine wing of the police is yet to be carried out, and the cops in the wing are sent for a brief training session to Indian Navy personnel and then are entitled with the responsibility of carrying out activities like sea patrolling which they do not have any earlier experience of.
The procurement of more offshore patrol crafts and interceptor crafts is yet to be done, and the many procured from foreign countries are out of use as they have suffered damages which can be repaired only by the experts from those countries.
“There are several departments which are involved in the coastal security programme, and it takes time for procurement and get new advancements into technology into place and start its use,” said a senior police officer.
Another major plan initiated by the government of India was installation of radar sensors on lighthouses across the coastline. The radar sensors would record real-time videos using high resolution cameras and send it to the local command center at Coast Guard regional centers or bases. The project was supposed to be completed by April this year.
Recently, Coast Guard officials distributed Distress Alert Transmitterssets to fishermen in Dahanu and Mumbai, but it has yet not been declared when the project will be expanded across the state.
The Union government was scrambling for cover on Wednesday over the way the abandoned Panama-flagged MT Pavit drifted to the Mumbai shore without being detected, making a mockery of its much-touted revamp of the coastal security architecture after the 26/11 terror strikes.
Sources said defence minister A K Antony directed both the Navy and Coast Guard to investigate the incident and submit "detailed reports" at the earliest, even as cabinet secretary Ajit K Seth also raised the matter with the agencies concerned.
Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, in turn, asked the Western Navy Command chief, Vice-Admiral D K Joshi, for "a detailed analysis". But all this could not detract from the fact that MT Pavit, despite being unmanned, has punched holes in the country's coastal security, much like the Lashkar jehadis had done to unleash the carnage during 26/11.
The "seriousness of the security breach'' has forced Antony to call a comprehensive coastal security review next week. Incidentally, the parliamentary standing committee on defence, in a report tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, stressed the need for "creating a fool-proof coastal surveillance network".
As earlier the government had announced many grandiose schemes in the bloody aftermath of 26/11 but the fact remains that the new coastal security architecture is yet to fully materialize on the ground even three years later.
The Navy, the Coast Guard and the marine police, who are supposed to constitute a three-tier coastal security ring, all failed to detect the 1,000-tonne MT Pavt.
Among the important measures announced but yet to get operational is Phase-I of the critical coastal surveillance network under a Rs 350-crore project. This includes 46 stations - complete with coastal radars, cameras, AIS (automatic identification systems) and other sensors mounted atop old lighthouses to dynamically locate and track vessels. Phase-II, with 56 additional stations, will kick off only thereafter.
This is the second time in two months that an adrift ship has grounded in Mumbai. In June the much bigger MV Wisdom beached, narrowly missing the Bandra-Worli Sealink. But that was at least detected.
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