In tune with the changing maritime situation across the world, the Indian Coast Guard is gearing up itself to face the new challenges at sea. "As the instances of piracy and hijacking are on the rise, Coast Guard has chalked out new plans to increase its vigil in the Indian territorial waters," said Vice Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Director General, Coast Guard while speaking to mediapersons on the occasion of 26th anniversary of Coast Guard in New Delhi.

The Vice Admiral said that besides operating from big stations, Coast Guard wants to make its operations more effective through small stations. It is taking steps to set up small stations at Gopalpur, Kakinada, Pondicherry , Beypore, Bhatkal, Ratnagiri, Jafrabad, Hutbay and Kamorta in the Andaman and Nicobar islands during this year. These stations, to be manned by small crew and few patrol vessels, will enable Coast Guard to increase its presence all along the Indian Coast.

Outlining the organsation’s acquisition programme during the current Five Year plan, the DG said that Coast Guard has envisaged a plan to replace its ageing ships and aircraft with two advance offshore patrol vessels, three pollution control vessels, one fast patrol vessel, two interceptor boats, two medium range reconnaissance aircraft and one advanced light helicopter. Operation Swan was launched jointly by Indian Navy and Coast Guard in 1993 to check infiltration and arms trafficking off Gujarat and Maharashtra Coasts. In furture, Coast Guard will handle this operation with augmentation of its resources.

Since a number of ships carrying a large quantity of oil have been passing through Indian waters, Coast Guard is devising new methods to check marine pollution. In the case of an oil spill, Coast Guard uses chemical dispersants to separate oil from water. As these chemical dispersants have a tendency of leaving remnants in waters, Coast Guard is in the process of procuring state-of-the-art equipment which actually collects spilled oil from waters.

The DG added that an international legislation is on the anvil to combat marine pollution and enforce strictly maritime laws. As per this legislation, ageing ships will not be permitted to pass through the ports.

Hovercraft H-186 which was inducted into Coast Guard last year helped to nab infiltrators in the Rann of Kutch and Sunderban Rann. In the same way, due to effective patrolling of Coast Guard ships, infiltration has considerably come down in recent times off Sri Lankan Coast. Compared to previous years, the number of Pakistani boats indulged in poaching in Indian waters last year is only six, added the DG. To add more punch to its SAR operations, Coast Guard has introduced a toll free telephone number ‘1718’ nationwide.