Gujarat: Only 22 marine police stations for 1,600km coast

VADODARA: Gujarat may boast of the longest coastline in the country. But when it comes to security infrastructure meant for protecting the coast of about 1,600 kilometres, the state lags behind other coastal states.
Time and again, the coastlines of the state have been put on high alert due to the state’s proximity to Pakistan. But with the limitations of infrastructure, there is little that the marine police can do. The Data on Police Organizations, 2019, released by the Union ministry of home affairs on Wednesday shows that many other states which are far away from Pakistan and have shorter coastline have a greater number of marine police stations.

With just 22 police stations and 30 interceptor boats, each marine police station is tasked with covering an average coastline area of over 72 kilometres. The Gujarat police has planned to add 13 more marine police stations under Phase-III, but it is highly unlikely to come up any time soon. According to senior police officials, the Phase-II will end only this year. Every police station in Karnataka is responsible for average coastline of 5 kilometres, in Maharashtra this area is 16 kilometres and in Tamil Nadu and Odisha it is 25 and 26 kilometres respectively.
“Our structure is different from other states’ structures. We have 22 police stations, but there are 45 outposts and chowkis, and we have expanded our manpower,” said deputy inspector general of police Himanshu Shukla of Marine Task Force. Shukla said that Gujarat is the only coastal state in the country to have a force of special Marine Task Commandos.
The current infrastructure also took 14 years to come up. The marine police in Gujarat was inaugurated in 2006 and it is jointly funded by the state and central government under the coastal security scheme.
In response to a question in the Gujarat assembly last July, MoS Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja had stated that besides the 1,640 km coastline, there are also 144 islands off the coast, of which six have human habitation.
The coastal security assumes significance in the light of 26/11 terror attacks of Mumbai in 2008 when 10 LeT members had hijacked a fishing boat ‘Kuber’ off Gujarat coast.