INDIA. Mumbai: A coordinated two-day offshore security exercise code-named “Prasthan” was conducted by the Indian Navy and other defence, state and civilian agencies in the offshore development area off Mumbai this week.
Every six months, an exercise is conducted to verify the policies and practices in place to deal with potential emergencies on oil production platforms. About 30 nautical miles southwest of Mumbai Harbor, on the Greatdrill Chaaya platform, the current exercise was carried out.
Indian Navy conducts “Prasthan” excercise
Western Naval Command announced the news on Twitter. The tweet read, “A coordinated multi-agency exercise named Prasthan to evaluate contingency measures for the Offshore Development Area (ODA) off Mumbai was held on 06 Apr 23. #ExPrasthan #BiAnnualExcercise #SynergyExcercise #HarKaamDeshKeNaam.”
Actions were taken during the exercise on Thursday to prepare for situations such as an oil platform fire, a man overboard, an area oil spill, helicopter emergencies, a hazardous gas leak, helping an offshore-area hampered vessel and the medical evacuation of platform employees.
The Indian Navy, Indian Air Force, Indian Coast Guard, ONGC, and Directorate General of Shipping all sent ships and helicopters for the drill.
Personnel from the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Mumbai Port Trust (Mbpt), Customs, Fisheries Department, and other relevant state and federal civilian agencies also took part.
The exercise provided a realistic setting to assess the preparedness of all concerned to tackle these contingencies and strengthen standard operating procedures.
The exercise aims to integrate the efforts of all maritime stakeholders involved in offshore defence. It seeks to refine the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and response actions to several contingencies in the Offshore Defence Area.
It is an important element of ensuring offshore security, as per the Defence Ministry.
Contingencies performed during the exercise include:
- terrorist intrusion
- bomb explosion
- casualty evacuation
- search and rescue
- man overboard
- major fire
- oil spill
- mass evacuation
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