Additional Director-General K.R. Nautiyal, Coast Guard Commander (Eastern Seaboard), has asked the Regional Commanders to augment the acquisition and construction of berthing facilities in view of the fast expansion of the fleet of ships and aircraft.
Mr. Nautiyal reviewed the operational preparedness of both the Coast Guard (CG) Regions under his jurisdiction here on Monday. This is the first time that such a review by the CGC (ES) is being undertaken at the Vizag Headquarters of Coast Guard (ES). It has jurisdiction over two regions – North East Region covering the Odisha and West Bengal and East Region covering Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh, with their headquarters in Kolkata and Chennai respectively.
Earlier, the CG Commanders Inspector-General Rajan Bargotra and Inspector-General Sivamani Parmesh called on Mr. Nautiyal.
Action plan
The review meet also deliberated on various strategic and tactical issues and laid out a comprehensive plan of action for implementation in the near future.
“There are 16 radars for surveillance along the eastern coast now and 17 more will be added in the next phase. The latest technology available will be leveraged to meet the emerging challenges in coastal security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” the Additional Director-General told the media.
Recalling the contribution of Coast Guard, Mr. Nautiyal said that during the last 43 years, the Coast Guard had saved around 9,000 people.
“Maritime interactions are being held with Bangladesh, Vietnam and other countries and our ships are going regularly abroad. The ‘colour coding of boats’ from different States is important for easy identification by coastal security agencies as also to the State governments concerned,” Mr. Nautiyal said.
Aviation station
Replying to queries, he said that an aviation station will be set up in Visakhapatnam soon and the process of land acquisition for construction of two jetties at Machilipatnam and Krishnapatnam is on and the projects are likely to be ready in the next two years.
“The coast guard has 11 Dorniers and three helicopters and soon a twin-engine aircraft will be acquired. The fleet strength was 137 ships on the east coast and the CG Ship Vijaya was commissioned at Paradip in Odisha on September 14. Another CG Ship Veera will be commissioned by December,” he said.