A coast guard ship off Paradip coast

Paradip, June 15: Coast guard and state marine police have jointly stepped up surveillance along the Dhamara-Paradip coast here in view of a perceptible threat from across the sea route.

“The state marine police are on a high alert and patrolling has been beefed up in coordination with the coast guard. The sea has turned hostile because of a depression. Still, round-the-clock vigil continues along all coastal routes,” Jagatsinghpur superintendent of police Satyabrata Bhoi told The Telegraph.

There are specific intelligence inputs on a possible subversive activity, said an official of the coast guard.

The marine wing of the state police is acting in cohesion with the coast guard to keep tab on suspicious movement of vessels along the Dhamara-Paradip coast.

The patrolling exercise, which is a part of the coastal security plan of the central government, is intended to improve the co-ordinating capabilities of dealing with any coastal contingency.

Co-operation has also been sought from marine fisheries department, traditional marine fishermen and trawl operators. They have been asked to inform the security agencies of any suspicious movement of vessels along the coast.

Fishermen and crews of trawls have also been advised to transmit the sighting of any suspicious vessels along the coast through the disaster alert transmitters. Through the transmitters, they could easily alert the coastal security agencies on sea pirates or vessels that move suspiciously, said Bhoi.