India plans mega test to check coastal security

EXERCISE SEA VIGIL Focus will be on preparedness to deal with 26/11like attacks

a luxury hotel.

Then, as it is now, the Achilles heel of India’s coastal security remains small fishing boats, especially those under 20 meters long. Of the 280,000-odd fishing boats registered across states in India, 220,000 fall in this category. The 10 Pakistan-based terrorists involved in the 26/11 attacks hijacked Kuber, a small fishing trawler in the high sea, killed the captain, and sailed into Mumbai unchallenged. They then used inflatable rafts to land.

Since then, all merchant and fishing vessels that are above 20 meters long are fitted with “Automatic Identification System ” (AIS), a Global Positioning System-enabled friend or foe identification system that also carries essentials details of the ship such as its last port of call and place of registration. Efforts to get an AIS on smaller trawlers and boats haven’t worked out. A satellitebased two-way communicating transponder developed by the

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is currently under trials for fitment on boats of smaller length but there is no clarity as to who will bear the ₹12,000-14,000 each cost of this.

WHAT WILL EXERCISE SEA VIGIL TEST?

“Any and every contingency which could crop up in the near future will be tested during this exercise,” a senior naval officer

who didn’t want to be named said.

During the exercise, 46 Coastal Radar Stations, 74 National Automatic Identification System Chain stations, four Joint Operational Centers located in Mumbai, Kochi, Vizag and Port Blair and the Gurugram-based Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC), the nerve centre of coastal surveillance and monitoring, will be put to test.