A two-day joint coastal security exercise ‘Sagar Kavach’ kicked off in the Bay of Bengal here by the Indian Coast Guard along with other stakeholders.
The exercise is aimed to strengthen the surveillance, detection and identification of enemy forces, developing the fishing community as ‘eyes and ears’ of coastal security agencies and also to revalidate the communication and coastal security measures in place.
The objectives of the coastal security exercise are to check the security mechanisms and to focus on synergy in operations both in sea and land. Various mock drills and situations were created to test the joint response of the security forces and offensive action during the coastal security exercise.
Extensive checking of biometric ID cards provided to the marine fishermen was also undertaken during the exercise. The stakeholders like Indian Navy, Marine police, Odisha police, Customs, Forest Department, Intelligence Bureau, and Paradip port personnel and Fisheries Department.
The district administration of all the six coastal districts of the State also participated in the joint exercise, informed Coast Guard sources.