Eight years after the government first felt the need to secure India’s coastline in view of rising terrorism and smuggling of arms and explosives through sea route, the Customs department is finally going to get 109 new patrol boats with hi-tech surveillance and weaponry capabilities.
The department is responsible for securing the country’s territorial waters till 24 nautical miles from the coast, from whereon the coast guard and the navy take over.
The use of the seafront to smuggle terror rather than gold and silver in to India, came into prominence in early nineties when serial bomb blasts across Mumbai’s business district shook the country. While terrorists have since then expanded their targets into cities like Ludhiana and Jaipur, the customs department has been operating with just 20 patrol boats procured in 1970s.
“The last time we procured boats was in 1976. Since smuggling and piracy substantially declined after the eighties, we did not see the need to procure more boats,” an official from the Customs’ logistics department told FE. However, the department did press into service a few boats confiscated from smugglers, apart from the 20 official patrol boats.
Though the government decided in 2000 to replace these boats, it was only in 2004 that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave its nod. The Customs department called for global bids for new patrol boats in 2006 after another nod from the CCEA. Since then, it has placed orders for 109 boats of worth Rs 250 crore, with Malaysia and Singapore-based firms.
While the Central Board of Excise and Customs has initiated the process of recruiting about 400 ex-navy men and coastguards to man these boats, the first batch of 24 patrol vessels is likely to be commissioned by August. These are large 20-metre boats have a maximum speed of 25 knots. Equipped with radars, GPS and auto navigation, they will be used to patrol the deep-seas by a crew of 10 officers.
Another batch of 63 boats will be used to guard the shallow coastal waters and specific areas such as the backwaters of Kerala and the riverine areas near Bangladesh. These are faster in speed and are called Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) that will patrol shallow areas where smugglers often hide.
The RIBs are of two types. While 30 of these are of 9 metres and have a speed of 30 knots, another 33 will be 6-metre long and cruise at 35 knots. The vessels are bullet-proof and are unsinkable. To be manned by a crew of five officers, these RIBs are expected to be delivered by the year-end .
The third category of 22 crafts, for which the CBEC issued a global tender this week, are interceptor boats and have similar features to those of the larger boats. Though smaller in size at about 13 metres, they are fast machines and can cruise at 40 knots. They will be used to patrol both the shallow and the deep seas. The CBEC expects these vessels to be in use by the middle of next year.