Infiltration through sea route possible, even after nine years of Mumbai terror attacks: Vice-Admiral Girish Luthra

Mumbai: The loopholes still persists for infiltration through sea route even after nine years of Mumbai terror attacks, said the Vice-Admiral (Western Command) of the Indian Navy, Girish Luthra, who added that it is impossible to verify and check each and every boat.

“It is not possible to physically check each and every boat at sea. The infiltration is possible through smaller boats and fishing trawlers,” said Luthra. So far, 19.74 lakh fishermen have enrolled for biometric identity cards and out of which 18.60 lakh have already been given the cards. “Till now more than 80 percent biometric identification cards have been issued to fishermen,” added Luthra. He further added the talks to install equipments are underway for the identification of smaller boats at sea.

For monitoring of boats, installation of automatic identification system in all boats above 20 meters while colour coding of boats are being undertaken by coastal states and Union territories for easier monitoring in the high seas and on International Maritime Boundary Line. India has a long coastline of 7,560 km touching Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal and also island territories of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep.