Balasore, July 12: A shortage of manpower in marine police station here and frequent technical snags in patrol boats have posed a challenge to coastal security in the state.

While the exclusive police station is struggling with almost 40 per cent vacancies in various ranks, including engineering and maintenance staff, security management has received a jolt since three of the four high-speed marine vessels are left non-functional.

“While one vessel is doing the patrolling, the rest three are out of order. Among them, one had been undergoing repair at Paradip base for the past six months and the other two were being fixed here itself, said nodal officer for coastal security and Balasore deputy superintendent of police Dhiren Chandra Nanda.

The district is considered important because of its strategic location and houses several key defence establishments, the Integrated Test Range for missile testing and the Proof and Experiential Establishment with arsenal testing ranges and century-old ordinance manufacture tanks.

The coastline of the district, stretching from Digha in Bengal to Dhamra in Bhadrak, is roughly about 85km.

“The lack of trained technicians for repair and maintenance for the particular brand of vessels, inadequate spare part kits, and indirect flow of funds for repair and maintenance have affected our work. Nor do we have a jetty in this base. As a result, we anchor the vessels near Naupalgadi. These are the major constraints, hampering the purpose and output,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.

“While the coastal security awareness has been enhanced among the fishermen community, unregistered trawlers, earlier operating in the sea, have now been registered. Even incidents of mid-sea pilferage of kerosene for use in mechanised vessels have drastically reduced because of patrolling,” said sub-divisional police officer of marine police station Kailash Chandra Parida.

District superintendent of police Rajesh Kumar said the vessels with technical glitches were being fixed locally in Paradip.

“We are keeping strict vigil and regular patrolling is being done,” he said.