The youngest force of Ministry of Defence Coast Guard opened a new region

 Coast Guard Regional Headquarters (North East) and co-located Station near  Kolkata, at a place  near to Kolkata air port ' New Town'  were formally commissioned by His Excellency, Shri MK Narayanan, the Governor of West Bengal at and impressive ceremony today. Vice Admiral MP Muralidharan, AVSM
NM Director General Indian Coast Guard and  some  of civilian and military dignitaries were present on the occasion.

            The fifth Regional Headquarters of the Coast Guard at Kolkata has been established in pursuance of the directives of the Cabinet Committee on Security.  The region itself was carved out from the Coast Guard Region (East) to strengthen coastal security and augment Coast Guard operations along the northern Bay of Bengal.  The region will exercise operational and administrative control over all Coast Guard assets in West
Bengal and Odisha and will have jurisdiction over 1.5 lakh sq kms of the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone, extending up to the Indo-Bangladesh

International Maritime Boundary Line.  The region will be further strengthened by basing additional ships and aircraft and commissioning of two Coast Guard Stations one each at Frazerganj and Gopalpur and one Coast Guard Air Enclave at Bhubaneswar in near future.

At present there are Coast Guard district at Haldia, West Bengal it was raised in 1983 and an air enclave at Kolkata air port.

 Smt. Padmini Narayanan Wife of Shri MK Narayanan, the Governor of West Bengal Naming of Establishment by Unveiling of Ceremonial Lifebuoy.

            In his address, His Excellency, Shri MK Narayanan, the Governor of West Bengal highlighted the need for a pro-active approach by all stakeholders involved in coastal and maritime security to achieve the common goal of national security.  He stated that post 26/11, numerous measures have been initiated by the Government of India for enhancing coastal and maritime security and specific responsibilities have been assigned to the Indian Navy and Coast Guard towards this.  He further stated that with the setting up of Coast Guard Regional Headquarters (North-East), coordination among all stakeholders involved in Coastal Security in West Bengal and Odisha will get further streamlined and enable them to work in a synergized
manner for the protection of the sea areas off the coast of West Bengal and Odisha. He expressed his happyness seeing the progress of the development in this coastal security. He also stressed for more on technology and information collection on coastal security.

            The Coast Guard Region (North-East) is headed by Inspector General KC Pande, TM and the Coast Guard Station Kolkata is commanded by Commandant GS Ralhi, TM.

Most of the patrol vessel of Coast Guard are built by the Garden Reach Ship Builders of Kolkata

A special cover on this occasion was released by the Sri M K Narayan Governor of West Bengal.



10 Dec 12