The costal security measure for Baleswar district got a fillip as two more marine police stations, one at Udaipur of Bhograi and another at Bahabalpur in Basta, were inaugurated on Thursday last.
With the addition of the two marine police stations, there are now three such police stations in the district.
The coastline of the district broadly stretching from Digha in West Bengal to Dhamra of Bhadrak is roughly about 85 km. It, in a cluster, houses several defence establishments, including two major ones, the Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE), one of the oldest laboratories of the DRDO and the Integrated Test Range (ITR), the missile test facilities.
The existing marine police station in Balaramgadi has four patrolling vessels, including three of 12 ton capacity each and one of five ton. Both the police stations would operate from private buildings as the department’s own building couldn’t be built due to certain constraints.
The construction of police station at Udaipur couldn’t be undertaken as a boundary dispute with the West Bengal Government is yet to be sorted out. Similarly the land for construction of a police station at Bahabalpur couldn’t be acquired, said marine police stations nodal officer Suresh Chandra Pathy.
Till completion of the police stations in their own land, they would function from private buildings. Also, the manpower would be pooled from different police stations till specially recruited constables exclusively for marine police stations are pressed into service, he aid, adding each police station would have 44 constables, 18 Havildars, four sub inspectors and one inspector, besides two patrolling vessels.
MlAs Ananta Das, Jiban Pradip Dash, Deputy Inspector General, (Eastern range) Asit Panigrahi and SP Satish Gajbhaiye besides several other local elected representatives were present at the inauguration ceremony.
“19 coastal villages in Bhograi and 46 in Basta come under Udaipur marine police station and Balaramgadi marine police station, respectively. More villages can be included under them if the villagers desire,” said nodal officer Pathy.