Guj Govt to provide jetty space for Coast Guard ships:CG Commander

Porbandar, Feb 27 (UNI) The Gujarat Government will amend its ports policy to ensure jetty space to Coast Guard ships and work for development of all-weather ports to enable the Maritime Force to protect the Indian waters more effectively.

This assurance was given by Chief Minister Narendra Modi when Coast Guard's senior officials met him at Gandhinagar recently, said Gujarat Coast Guard Commander G P Raj.

Mr Raj was talking to reporters on the sidelines of ''A Day at Sea'' programme that was held along the Porbandar coast on Monday.

He said Gujarat government has promised all possible cooperation to the Coast Guard, as Pakistan-based terrorists outfits are using sea routes to reach India.

Mr Raj said Mr Modi has assured that a clause for providing jetty space to Coast Guard ships would be incorporated in the state's policy for port development.

He said there is a need to develop all-weather ports to protect ships during the South-West monsoons. ''Gujarat is prone to be affected by this monsoon and it becomes difficult to operate by the CG unit here unless reinforcements are sent from Mumbai,'' he said.

As the Coast Guard ships are anchored unprotected, they get damaged, he added.

''Last year, we had to spend Rs 80 lakhs on a ship that got damaged. Four other Coast Guard (CG) ships were also grounded on the West coast,'' he rued.

He said berthing space should be provided to all CG ships and then it would be possible to augment its force presence too.

Gujarat Governor Nawal Kishore Sharma witnessed the exercises by the Coast Guard that mainly comprised of the varied tasks that it performs at sea like anti-poaching and rescue operations, surface firing and steam past.

The Commander said the CG has taken over the Veraval port, at a nominal lease rate of Re 1 per sq metre. ''A policy decision has to be taken for Poshitra, a marine sanctuary, where environmentalists have been fighting for not allowing jetties to be built. One has to consider security aspects too,'' he said.

The Coast Guard was formed under the Ministry of Defence on February 1, 1977, for keeping guard of over two million square kilometre of Exclusive Economic Zone. Its western region units monitor 1,941 km of coastline from Gujarat to Kerala and 11 islets of Lakshwadeep and Minicoy.

Gujarat, which aims to emerge as the ''port state of India'', has a 1600-km long coastline, with 41 small and intermediate ports, under by the Gujarat Maritime Board and one at Kandla, which is operated by the Centre's Kandla Port Trust.

Plans are afoot to develop eight greenfield ports in the state and the government has invited Expression of Interest for the same.

Two port-driven Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have also been given the go-ahead by the government, that will come up in Mundra and Kandla.

UNI