Indian Coast Guard holds 18th National Maritime Search and Rescue Board meeting
INN/Delhi,@infodeaofficial
Indian Coast Guard (ICG) conducted 18th National Maritime Search and Rescue Board (NMSARB) meeting to discuss policy issues, formulate guidelines and procedures and also to assess the efficacy of National Search and Rescue Plan.
The apex-level meeting was chaired by Director General Indian Coast Guard and Chairman NMSARB K Natarajan. He highlighted the need for collaborative approach with capacity building of stakeholders towards strengthening the maritime Search And Rescue (SAR) architecture.
He reiterated the need to focus on sustainable maritime safety in Area of Responsibility (AOR) and address regulations governing mandatory carriage of life saving safety equipment, seaworthiness of fishing vessels by fisher-folk as preventive mechanism, proper training and accounting of the crew onboard.
He spoke about various initiatives of ICG in coordination with other stakeholders to improve the search and rescue effectiveness within the 4.6 million sq km Indian Search and Rescue Region on the sea.
He brought out the importance of three Maritime Rescue Coordination centers at Mumbai, Chennai and Andaman and Nicobar Islands established by ICG and voluntary ship reporting system INDSAR developed by the Coast Guard to divert the ship nearest to the site of incident for immediate Search and Rescue (SAR) assistance.
SAR mechanism adopted by ICG resulted in no loss of life at sea during passage of many cyclones in the recent past, he said. The meeting was attended by members from various ministries, agencies, coastal states and union territories. Secretary of Ministry of Shipping Gopal Krishna, Secretary of Ministry of Civil Aviation Pradeep Singh Kharola were also among those present.
