The two-day comprehensive coastal security exercise, Sagar Kavach, involving all the land and maritime security agencies to check the efficacy and preparedness of security forces and security intelligence machinery along the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coast concluded on Wednesday.
The exercise, supervised by the State government, was conducted by the Commander, Indian Coast Guard Regional Headquarters (East), Chennai.
Sandeep Mittal, Additional Director-General of Police, Coastal Security Group, said coastal security had come to the forefront after the Mumbai terror attack in 2008. Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, being the maritime States, had an enormous importance of maritime safety and security.
About 10,000 personnel from all Central/State law enforcement agencies, including 6,779 from the State police, were engaged in the exercise.
The aim was to provide seamless seaward cover along the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coast and security to the State assets. The exercise was also to assess the effectiveness of the fishing community as the “eyes and ears” for early warning of seaward threats.
The security personnel were divided into two groups. One group, called the ‘Red Force’, was to make ingress from the sea to target the vital assets/vulnerable points, including the high-value targets on the coast. The other group, called the ‘Blue Force’, was tasked to intercept them, both at sea and on land.
Personnel of the Indian Coast Guard, the Navy and the Customs were deployed on their ships, boats, fast interceptor craft, helicopters and hovercraft. The Coastal Security Group deployed fast interceptor boats, HDPE boats and jet boats, besides All-Terrain Vehicles.
In one of the real-time scenarios, 14 hostages in a hijacked ship were safely rescued by Black Cat Commandos of the National Security Guard, supported by other agencies.
The police said the exercise achieved its purpose. Attempts made at 30 places across the State to infiltrate into the destination were thwarted and 105 ‘intruders’ and 19 boats were apprehended.
“The lessons learnt would be incorporated in the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to rectify the functional inadequacies,” Mr. Mittal said.
