Odisha and West Bengal would hold a joint security exercise “Sagar Kavach” within a week to check the preparedness of the coastal security agencies to tackle any unforeseen threat on the 630-km coastline of both the States.
Speaking to reporters after a high-level meeting at the State Secretariat here on Friday, Home Secretary Asit Tripathy said, “Sagar Kavach security exercise is a mock drill to check the efficiency of the security parameters and preparedness of various security agencies like the Indian Navy, Marine Police , Coast Guard, Forest Department, Fisheries and the district administration, Tripathy said.
“This is the first time that Odisha is having a joint security exercise with West Bengal. 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” he added.
The participants in the joint drill would be the Indian Navy, Coast Guard units of Paradip and Haldia, 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 Coast Guard, teams of Customs and port officials, Fisheries Department officials have also been included 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. After the drill we would review if there are any loopholes,” West Bengal Coast Guard Commander MA Warsi said.