Coastal radar chain to get operationalise

Nearly five years after Mumbai terror attacks brought out the glaring gaps in the coastal security of the country, the first two radars in the chain along the 7,516km-long shoreline will become operationalise in August. Thereafter 44 more radars will become operational bringing every inch of Indian maritime territory under electronic surveillance.

 

 

 

This innermost ring of coastal security, involving operationalisation of about 46 coastal radars in the Phase-I will take another year and then the Phase-II will see the number of radars going up to 110. The shore-based surveillance network will be equipped with radars, cameras and other sensors mounted atop lighthouses. With a range of about 80 miles this chain will boost the electronic surveillance capability of the force – to indentify any rogue ship approaching the Indian coast.

According to sources, the first two radars will be inaugurated by Defence Minister AK Antony in mid-August in Gujarat and Mumbai. The chain of costal radars was first envisaged in 2001 by a Group of Ministers. However, it only got the sense of urgency after 10 armed gunmen landed on the shores of Mumbai undetected and wrecked mayhem.

The coastal radar chain will come at a cost of Rs. 600 crore. The chain will also include the island territories of the country namely – the Andaman and Nicobal Islands and the Lakshadweep Islands. The radars will be feeding in the information to the Joint Operation Centres (JOC) set up in Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Port Blair. The JOC at any point of time will have the real time information about the ships crossing the maritime region around the country along with complete history of the vessel.

Without these radars, the coastal security forces – navy, coast guard and marine police – have been ‘blind’ as depicted by an abandoned ship MV Pavit landing on Mumbai shore in 2011.

Along with this as part of the second layer of electronic maritime surveillance Automated Identification Stations with a range of 150 miles will also be set up. For it to function, transponders will be put on all boats of fishermen. The third and outermost layer consists of satellite-based Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) that can keep an eye on any vessel transcending through waters about 1000 miles from Indian coastline.

These three layers of data will be sent to the National Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence Network that will create real-time maritime domain awareness as it will also be linked to the operations rooms of the Navy and coast guard.