Senior officials of Central, State governments and other maritime security agencies will be participating in a two-day seminar on maritime security being organised here by the Western Naval Command to deliberate on future challenges post 26/11 attacks.
The officials participating will represent nine coastal states and four Union Territories in which the coastal security organisation has been revamped after the Mumbai terror strikes, a Defence spokesperson said today.
The seminar, being held on January 20-21 at the INHS Asvini auditorium in Colaba area, is initiatives to improve inter agency co-ordination, increase interaction and exchange of ideas amongst all stakeholders of coastal security for meeting future challenges, he said.
After the 26/11 attacks, the Central Government has designated the Indian Navy as the lead agency for maritime security including coastal security. The Navy and the Coast Guard have initiated several measures to improve the security of the coastline.
Both the organisations have adopted a synergistic approach with other stakeholders of coastal security to work towards establishing an effective mechanism for improving coastal security and preventing a repeat of such incidents.
Participants representing central and state government ministries and departments are participating in the seminar.
These include senior bureaucrats of the Ministry of Home, Shipping, Ports, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of Environment and Forest, security agencies like the Indian Coast Guard, Police, and CISF.
Intelligence agencies such as the IB and state intelligence would also participate in the event.
The seminar is being conducted in three sessions which include ‘Sharing of perspectives of Coastal security of the major stakeholders and future Challenges’, ‘The Challenges of capacity building, and improving capabilities of coastal security forces’ and ‘Challenges of Intelligence sharing’.