India's coastal security architecture has several gaping holes despite the country having a 7,516-km coastline, touching nine states and four Union Territories, 13 major and 185 minor ports, and a huge 2.01 million sq km Exclusive Economic Zone set to further expand after the delineation of the Continental Shelf in a couple of years, as reported earlier by TOI.
In a meeting chaired by defence minister A K Antony on Saturday, the Coast Guard was asked to lease or hire ships from the international market in the ''quickest possible time'' to meet ''shortages'' in its force-levels.
''Approval was also accorded for the acquisition of cutting-edge equipment and interceptor boats on a fast-track basis. The Coast Guard will also get nine more stations, in addition to the existing 30 or so,'' said an official.
This is critical since Coast Guard is making do with just 43 ships, 18 boats/crafts, 23 non-commissioned boats and 45 aircraft at present. This when the force's ''assessed requirement'' is of 154 ships, 93 boats and 105 aircraft. The force also suffers from a huge ''capability gap'' in surface surveillance, shallow-water operations and aerial surveillance. TOI
India wants to be a super power and goes to moon but Indian coast guard in stone age? should we built some fast attack crafts for india and give on lease? |