To strengthen surveillance of over 7,500-km coastline of the country, the Defence Ministry on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to expand the coastal radar surveillance network.
The decision was taken by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
The council reviewed the status of other procurements.
“The DAC gave approval for issuing the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for Phase II of the static sensor chain and also an intermediate aircraft engine repair facility for the Navy,” a Ministry source said.
Vessel management
One official said Phase II involves setting up 38 additional radars and four mobile surveillance stations as well as two vessel traffic management systems (VTMS) in Kutch and Khambat in Gujarat at a cost of approximately ₹800 crore.
The project will be executed by Indian companies and the lead integrator of the various works is Bharat Electronics Ltd., based in Bengaluru.
In the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which terrorists used a fishing boat to enter the city, the government decided to set up a chain of static sensors to fill gaps in coastal surveillance and keep track of boats entering Indian territorial waters.
Under Phase I, a chain of 46 coastal surveillance radar and electro-optic sensors were set up, including 36 in the mainland, six in the Lakshadweep islands and four in the Andaman & Nicobar islands.
India is also setting up similar radar stations in friendly Indian Ocean littoral nations, which are integrated into India’s own radar network.
The information received from the various stations and sensors is collated at the Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) located outside the national capital and manned by the Navy for real-time maritime domain awareness.
Aircraft engine repair
The DAC also gave approval for the setting up of a shore-based intermediate engine repair facility for the Navy’s MiG-29K fighter aircraft at the Naval aircraft yard in Goa.
The Navy currently operates as many as 45 MiG-29K carrier aircraft procured from Russia.
Some of them operate from the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya .
