Hi-tech gadgetry, fishermen keep vigil on west coast

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, May 14

Keeping a watchful eye on India’s sensitive west coast now entails a mix of hi-technology, latest gadgetry and coast based radars, besides lakhs of fishermen who now form the ‘human eyes’ at sea for the Indian Navy.

The technology mix includes space-based automatic identification system for ships, coast-based radars and ship identification system, long-range trackers for ships and air traffic, besides unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). All the information is collated and analysed in real time at Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) in Gurgaon for immediate action at the Joint operations centres of the Navy and the Coast Guard.

Vice Admiral SPS Cheema, Commander-in-Chief of the Mumbai-based Western Naval Command, in an exclusive talk to The Tribune explained: “We now have a multi-layered surveillance system and multi-layered response mechanism. We get info on fishing, about merchant vessels and air traffic. Each and every ‘contact’ at sea is monitored”.

The response system includes UAVs, smaller and big ships, besides aircraft and helicopters.

It is more than six years since the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks took place when 10 gun-toting assailants rode a hijacked Indian fishing vessel to launch simultaneous attacks at five places in Mumbai.

In the wake of the attacks, Indian fishermen have been trained in hi-end technology in a unique way.

Admiral Cheema said: “The fishermen are our eyes and ears and in a way a part of the security set up. At sea they are the best people to spot any outsiders in the waters”.

Boats are being color coded which means boats from a particular region will have different colors and can be spotted from a distance, said the senior Navy officer who hails from a village near Ludhiana and studied at Sainik School, Karnal.

The Navy regularly interacts with these lakhs of ‘informers’. “At every fish landing station all across the coast, we have interaction and there are hundreds of such spots. We train and educate them on the need to inform us. It is now a well-organized system”, the Western Navy Commander said.

Work on the installation of the second phase of the coast-based radars is on. The first phase had 46 of these which left a few blind spots. “It will cover all the blind spots and also cover the island territories”, Admiral Cheema said.

After 26/11, information gathering has seen massive increase, he added. India’s initiative on the west coast to provide a multi-tiered security also means that the international merchant vessels now operate at some 40-50 km away from the Indian coast while normally then would be 150 km away.

Asked if the international shipping would move westwards since there has been no piracy till about some 400 nautical miles off the Indian west coast, Admiral Cheema replied, “I don’t think that is happening in the foreseeable future. The security, which the Indian navy provides, is active. They (merchant ship companies) are happy. This has reduced the security bill of the shipping companies. One of the busiest sea lane of communication (SLOC) passes just west of India. Ships carrying millions of dollars of oil and cargo ply on the route.

“So many huge vessels near the coast do not affect Naval operations. We have own operational procedures”, Admiral Cheema asserted.