MANGALURU: The Indian Coast Guard will set up its first academy in Kenjar village in Dakshina Kannada district to train officers from the defence forces.
The Coast Guard Academy will come up on 158.23 acres of land in Kenjar, in Mangaluru taluk, which the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) handed over to the Coast Guard on Saturday.
The process of land transfer was fast-tracked in March this year. Sources said Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa communicated to the Defence Ministry the particulars of the land transfer on Saturday.
The academy will train officers of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG), Border Security Force (BSF) and defence agencies, and also provide maritime security training to personnel from nations friendly to India.
Deputy Inspector General S Babu Venkatesh, Commander of Coast Guard, Karnataka, told TNIE that the academy is expected to be functional within a year-and-a-half-or two years and a clear picture on the progress on this front is expected to emerge by mid-October.
Initially, the academy was proposed to come up in Kannur district in Kerala for which the then Defence Minister A K Antony had laid the foundation stone in 2011. However, the project did not get clearance from the Union Environment Ministry. About two years ago, the project was shifted to Karnataka. The Coast Guard had sought 160 acres of land to set up the academy.