Indian Navy to hold mega coastal defence exercise covering over 7,500 kms of coastline
New Delhi: The Indian Navy will kick-start on Tuesday a two-day multi-agency military exercise covering India's 7,516 km-long coastlines, involving 13 coastal states and Union Territories, to further bolster maritime security and surveillance, officials said.
Billed as India's largest coastal defence drill, the second edition of exercise 'Sea Vigil' is being organized to check the efficacy of the measures initiated to plug gaps in coastal security following the Mumbai terror attack in 2008, they said.
"The scale and conceptual expanse of the exercise are unprecedented in terms of the geographical extent, the number of stakeholders involved, the number of units participating, and in terms of the objectives to be met," the Indian Navy said.
"The exercise will provide a realistic assessment of our strengths and weaknesses and thus will help in further strengthening maritime and national security," it added.
Officials said the Indian Navy will deploy a sizeable number of its ships and other key assets in the Sea Vigil exercise.
The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard have taken a series of measures to bolster India's coastal security after the Mumbai terror attack in which over 166 people including 28 foreigners from 10 nations were killed by a group of Pakistani terrorists.
On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists carried out the coordinated attack on a railway station, two luxury hotels, and a Jewish centre, after they sneaked into India's financial capital using the sea route in the Arabian sea.
The inaugural edition of the Sea Vigil exercise took place in January 2019.
The exercise is taking place at a time when India and China are locked in a bitter border standoff in eastern Ladakh.
In sync with the national security doctrine, the Indian Navy significantly increased its deployment of warships, submarines and other assets in the Indian Ocean Region, in an attempt to send across a message to China that Indian armed forces are fully prepared to deal with any challenge.
The two-day drill is a build-up towards Theatre-level Readiness Operational Exercise (TROPEX) which the Indian Navy conducts every two years, officials said.
"Sea Vigil and TROPEX together will cover the entire spectrum of maritime security challenges, including the transition from peace to conflict. Assets of the Indian Navy, Coast Guard, Customs, and other maritime agencies will participate in Sea Vigil," the Navy said in a statement.
It said the conduct of the exercise is also being facilitated by the ministries of defence, home affairs, shipping, petroleum and natural gas, fisheries, customs and state governments among others.
"While smaller-scale exercises are conducted in coastal states regularly, including combined exercises amongst adjoining states, the conduct of a security exercise at national-level is aimed to serve a larger purpose," the Navy said.
It provides an opportunity, at the apex level, to assess the preparedness in the domain of maritime security and coastal defence, it added.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
