Navy conducts Coastal Security Review meeting

A Coastal Security Review Meeting was today held at the Southern Naval Command to review preparedness of various agencies involved in coastal security of Kerala and Lakshadweep Islands.

The meeting chaired by Captain Simon Mathai, Kerala Naval Officer-in-Charge, was attended by senior functionaries from Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard, Coastal District Administration, Police, Fisheries, Customs, IB, Ports, CISF/ CoPT, BPCL, LNG Petronet, Lakshadweep and Mahe Administration.

During the meeting a comprehensive review of the steps already initiated to safeguard the coast was carried out.

Besides, new initiatives to improve coordination and joint operations, optimum utilisation of available resources and additional measures required to strengthen coastal security were discussed, a Naval press release said.

Among the issues discussed were the progress on Registration of Fishing Boats, issue of Biometric Identity Cards to Fishermen, Notification and Monitoring of Fish Landing Centres, audit of minor ports as per International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) code, Security of LNG Petronet and Single Point Mooring (SPM) and commissioning of coastal Police Stations.

The delegates also utilised the opportunity to visit the state of the art, newly constructed Joint Operations Centre as well as the Fast Interceptor Craft inducted by the Navy for Force Protection.

The Coastal Security Mechanism was reviewed following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks from the sea.

Two major Coastal Security Exercises named Theera-Vetta are conducted every year along the coast of Kerala, the Lakshadweep and Minicoy Islands.