India enhanced coastal security post 26/11 Mumbai terror attack

It has been 12 years since LashkareTaiba LeT terrorists supported and launched by Pakistan perpetrated dastardly attacks on Mumbai Over 166 Indian and foreign citizens were killed and 300 injured in the mayhem that lasted for four daysWhile 1993 had witnessed explosives being landed by the sea route the 2008 attack saw terrorists hijacked a Gujaratbased fishing vessel Kuber and make their way ashore to MumbaiThe wounds of 2611 have left behind scars that shall remain etched forever in the countrys conscience The November 26 attack demanded sweeping changes of the nations coastal security constructMultiple initiatives were set forth including the National Committee for Coastal and Maritime Security NCSMCS in 2009 Steering Committee for Review of Coastal Security SCRCS in 2013 and the State and District level Coastal Security Committees in 2016Though the muchawaited singlepoint apex level body the proposed National Maritime Authority NMA is yet to be realised an interagency setup spearheaded by the Indian Navy has steered the course over the past 12 years said a top government officerThe foremost step towards synergy was creation of Joint Operations Centres JOC at Mumbai Cochin Visakhapatnam and Port Blair Each of these JOCs operates under a CommanderinChief to synergise coastal security efforts of over 15 central and coastal state government agenciesThe raising of Sagar Prahari Bal SPB comprising over 1000 personnel with the addition of over 100 Fast Interceptor Craft FICs has enhanced security of most major harboursAdditionally installation of the Harbour Defence Surveillance System which fuses various sensors has also been a technological leap to provide comprehensive realtime situational awareness for monitoring and analysisThe induction of Intermediate Support Vessels ISVs specifically to ensure security of oil platforms off the eastern and western seaboards has also greatly enhanced our energy securityThe Indian Navy is the principal maritime agency of the nation and undertakes close coordination with the Coast Guard and other organisations involved in coastal security operations The Marine Police are also being empowered by coastal states and one of the key challenges was to orient and train these police personnel who are under respective coastal state governments to the marine environmentThe National Academy of Coastal Policing which is being developed near Okha in Gujarat will be a unique institution to train Marine police in maritime laws seamanship boatwork navigation weaponhandling usage of navigation and surveillance instruments etc the officer saidThe Indian Navy and Coast Guard through their own professional schools also continue to concurrently train these personnelThe Navys operations at sea have also been complemented by regular outreach programmes to coastal fishing communities This endeavour has reaped rich dividends andour fishing communities have been empowered as eyes and ears of the maritime security architectureThe government has also facilitated strengthening of legislative framework for overall maritime security such as the AntiMaritime Piracy Bill the Marine Fisheries Regulation and Management Bill and the Merchant Shipping BillEven as these Bills are pending enactment progress on augmentation and enhancement of government agencies in terms of capacity capability and most importantly interagency coordination is being steered by the Navy in coordination with various agenciesAnother area for enhancing coastal security is Maritime Domain Awareness MDA which is extremely challenging since India is located in one of the busiest maritime traffic regions of the world To complicate the picture India also has perhaps the highest density of fishing vessels in its territorial waters for a country of its size The settingup of National Command Control Communication and Intelligence NC3I Network which facilitates interlinking of naval and coast guard stations and development of a common operational plot has visibly enhanced our overall MDA the officer saidThe Information Management and Analysis Centre IMAC and associated Information Fusion Centre IFC at Gurugram is the nervecentre of the NC3I network receives information from various sources and fuses them into a common operational pictureThe upcoming National MDA Project NMDA now intends to integrate a greater number of stakeholders into a common national maritime information grid to significantly enhance overall awarenessTo evaluate effectiveness of these efforts towards the nations coastal security panIndia coastal security exercise Sea Vigil was first conducted in January 2019This largescale exercise witnessed participation of more than 70 ships 700 craft and 35 aircraft of the Indian Navy Coast Guard State Marine Police Central Armed Police Forces CAPFs and other agencies across all coastal States and Union Territories a unique event in terms of its scale even perhaps at the global levelThe complexity level of participation resolution of past imperfections improvements in procedures and identification of inadequacies will be progressed in the next edition planned in 2021Consequent to infrastructure augmentation refining of procedures coordination amongst agencies is the resultant uptick in recent years in terms of thwarting a number of nefarious attempts at sea including smuggling of narcotics and explosivesAll of the above are the culmination of focussed efforts by various central and state government agencies yet these actions could be categorised as continual and never final Just as security agencies have evolved so have the perpetrators of terror from the seas security agencies have to succeed every time the terrorists only onceIn a recent statement to the media Vice Admiral MS Pawar Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff assured his countrymen of the Navys commitment along with all stakeholders to neutralise the threat of terrorism at and from the seasThe Indian Navy in close partnership with all other stakeholders continues to establish an electronic net and seamless surveillance mechanism along the nations coastline in its ongoing quest to develop a hardy maritime security architectureKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever