Bhubaneswar: Odisha and and Bengal will shortly conduct a joint coastal security exercise along the Bay of Bengal coast.

The security drill, named Sagar Kavach, will be undertaken to strengthen the coastal security mechanism along the 630km coastline of Odisha and Bengal.

Informing this after a joint meeting of stakeholders, Odisha's additional chief secretary (home) Asit Tripathy said: "It will be a realistic exercise to check the preparedness of various security forces, such as Indian Navy, marine police, Indian Coast Guard, forest department, fisheries and district administration."

"There will be a simulated terror attack at a random place along Odisha or Bengal coast. The intruders will try to enter the coast," said Tripathy. However, he refused the divulge the location and timing of the drill. " It will be held for two days ," he said.

"The drill will revaluate the existing standard operating procedure (SOP) mechanisms. All stakeholders, who attended the meeting, were made aware about exercise settings and other SOPs. After the drill, we will review if there are any loopholes," said Bengal Coast Guard commander M.A. Warsi.

More than 1,000 personnel from 18 marine police stations in Odisha, 12 marine police stations in Bengal, Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard in Paradip and Haldia, and port, customs, forest and fisheries officials will take part in the exercise.

"The exercise would activate all the agencies involved in ensuring coastal security and the level of co-ordination among them would be put to test. The coastal security operation centres in Paradip in Odisha and Haldia in Bengal will co-ordinate the operation," said coast guard commandant stationed at Paradip, Ashis.

The state government has recently urged the Centre to sanction 40 more power boats for Odisha in addition to existing 15. The Odisha government had last month decided to introduce national biometric identity cards for around 3.46 lakh identified sea-going fishermen to strengthen coastal security and reduce threat from sea route.

The government has also decided to activate the marine police stations along Odisha's coast. Of the total 18 marine police stations approved for Odisha, five police stations are fully functional, while the state government has decided to request the Centre to sanction adequate fund to operationalise other 13 marine police stations.