As part of the Centre’s efforts to beef up the country’s coastal security apparatus in the island territories of Andaman and Nicobar, a Coast Guard station has been established at Mayabunder in North Andaman.
Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma commissioned the ICG station on Monday in the presence of tri-services Andaman and Nicobar Command chief Air Marshal P K Roy and Commander Coast Guard Region (Andaman and Nicobar) Inspector General V S R Murthy.
“The new station is part of the ongoing efforts by the Coast Guard to strengthen maritime and coastal security and the assets based at Mayabunder will help augment patrolling along the northern group of Andaman Islands for safeguarding Indian maritime interests,” an ICG official said here.
Sharma noted that the ICG’s efforts in maintaining a high state of vigil in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands had resulted in the arrest of a large number of poachers and helped save precious human lives during search and rescue operations. He further said that the implementation of the Coastal Surveillance Network project for static radars would be a major milestone in ensuring near gap-free surveillance of the islands.
Roy underlined the need for maintaining continuous vigil of the strategically important island territories. He noted that the Coast Guard had initiated several far-reaching measures to augment force levels and manpower to meet the existing and future maritime challenges. The new station is part of the government efforts to double the fleet and manpower of the Indian Coast Guard by 2018, a move that was envisaged in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The 10 radars for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands under the CSN Phase-I is expected to be completed by the end of this fiscal in March 2013.