INDIA. Mumbai: Additional Director General KR Suresh, Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Commander, Western Seaboard, along with his wife Jayanthi Suresh, President of the Coast Guard Wives Welfare Association (CGWWA) visited Indian Coast Guard Station at Murud Janjira in Raigad in Maharashtra, to interact with officers and civilian staff on Tuesday.
The Flag Officer reviewed the operational readiness of the station and ongoing infrastructural developments. In addition, he visited the Indian Coast Guard units berthed at Dighi port to boost the morale of the ICG personnel posted there.
He impressed upon the strategic importance of the station and lauded the synchronised efforts put by Coast Guard along with all stakeholders involved in Coastal security safeguarding the Raigad Coast, which is abode to a world heritage site, i.e. Janjira Fort and eminent tourist destination, an official statement read.
The Indian Coast Guard station at Murud-Janjira was set up to boost coast surveillance in 2010. The station, located about 160 km from Mumbai, along the Konkan coast, is engaged in activities such as rendering help to prevent the smuggling of arms and explosives and infiltration of anti-national elements through sea routes. It is engaged in strengthening the Joint Coastal Patrolling off the Gujarat and Maharashtra coast.
Three stations funded by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs at Veraval (Gujarat), Dahanu (Maharashtra) and Murud Janjira (Maharashtra) are part of the Centre’s scheme to look after coastal security.
The Murud-Janjira station functions under the administrative and operational control of the Commander Coast Guard Region (West) through the Commander Coast Guard District HQ-2 at Mumbai. Six officers and 50 men are posted at the station, and the Coast Guard has two interceptor boats.
It may be recalled that the arms and ammunition, including deadly RDX, used on March 12, 1993, Mumbai serial bomb blasts were landed at Shekhadi in Raigad district.
In the aftermath of November 26, 2008, deadly terrorist attack in Mumbai, the committee set up by the Maharashtra Government suggested the construction of two Indian Coast Guard stations- Dahanu (Palghar district) and Murud Janjira (Raigad) located in the north and south of Mumbai respectively. Subsequently, a plot (11 hectares) of forest land at Rajpuri village in Murud was allotted to enable Coast Guard to set up its base.
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