Port Blair, June 3: The three days long Joint Coastal Security Exercise conducted in the Andaman Sea concluded on 01 Jun 11. The central and state maritime stakeholders i.e. A&N Administration, Marine Police, State Police, Fisheries department, Forest department, Port Management Board (PMB), Directorate of Shipping Services (DSS), Light House authorities, Customs alongwith Navy and Coast Guard Components of Andaman and Nicobar Command participated in the exercise.

 

The exercise was controlled and coordinated from Joint Operations Centre (Coastal Security) - JOC (CS) at HQANC and conducted from Regional Coastal Security Operation Centre (A&N) – RCSOC (A&N) at Port Blair. 

 

This exercise was conducted in two phases. In the first phase officials from all agencies participated in simulated drills - ‘Table Top Exercises’ in board room to fine tune their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Coastal Security. 

 

The second phase was ‘Tactical Phase’ conducted from 30 May to 01 Jun 11. During this phase live situations were simulated in which stakeholders reactions were assessed for future improvement. The exercise was also utilized to create awareness about the usage of toll free telephone number 1093 dedicated for reporting coastal security issues. The highlight of the exercise was cross deployment of PMF, Navy, and Coast Guard personnel in order to understand the working environment of each service. 

 

A detailed de-brief of the exercise was held in Secretariat Conference Hall on 03 Jun 11 with Chief Secretary in charge Smt Archana Arora in chair and all senior officials from participating agencies were in attendance. The interactive de-brief session witnessed a host of constructive feedbacks and suggestions from the participants.

 

It may be noted that this was the third such Exercise conducted in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Such exercises greatly help in formalizing and fine tuning the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on Coastal Security involving many agencies and synergizing the efforts thereby upholding the credo – ‘UNITED WE RESPOND’.