Bengal, Odisha to hold first-ever joint coastal security exercise

Bhubaneswar: With an aim to tighten the existing coastal security mechanism along the 630-odd-km-long coastline along Odisha and West Bengal, the governments of both the states have decided to hold a joint security exercise.

Named “Sagar Kavach”, the security exercise will begin in a week’s time.

Giving details about the proposed programme, Odisha home secretary Asit Tripathy, said, “Sagar Kavach security exercise is a realistic drill to check the efficacy of the security parameters and preparedness of various security forces like the Indian Navy, Marine police force, Indian Coast Guard (ICG), forest department, fisheries and district administration.”

“During the two-day drill, we are going to organise a simulated terror attack named ‘red force’ at a random place along Odisha or West Bengal coast and check how effective our marine policing is” Mr Tripathy said. The participants in the joint drill will include personnel from the Indian Navy, Coast Guard Paradip and Haldia, personnel of 18 marine police stations in Odisha and 12 police stations of West Bengal.

Similarly, for the first time since the security exercises were initiated by the Indian Navy and ICG, teams of Customs and port officials, fisheries department officials have also been made a part of the security drill.

“The drill is to revaluate the existing Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) mechanisms. All stakeholders who participated in the meeting were made aware about exercise settings and other SOPs. The Coast Guard, and all the security forces, even the district administrations have been very helpful and proactive towards coastal security. After the drill we will review if there are any loopholes,” West Bengal Coast Guard Commander M.A. Warsi said.