It is found that the perpetrators of last week’s terror attacks hijacked an Indian fishing trawler, Kuber, off the Gujarat coast and used it to reach Mumbai. Now India has decided to use a satellite system to monitor the movement of smaller boats, including fishing trawlers, that ply the country’s waters.
The government has decided to bring fishing trawlers and boats of a gross tonnage (total internal cubic capacity of a ship) of at least 100 under a tracking mechanism currently being set up for bigger ocean-going ships. A senior official of the Directorate General of Shipping, or DGS, India’s maritime regulator, said that the tracking mechanism follows rules framed by the global maritime regulator, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and will bring India in line with the latest guidelines of the Safety of Life at Sea (Solas) convention monitored by the IMO. India is a signatory to the convention.
It is informed that satellite-based system to identify and track ships with a gross tonnage of at least 300, that would bolster maritime security along the country’s coast, will become operational beginning 1 January. According to DGS official in the second phase of the project, the government plans to bring fishing trawlers and boats of 100 gross tonnage and above under the tracking mechanism.
A Union shipping ministry official said the Mumbai terror attack has given a new thrust to the move to bring smaller fishing craft also under the tracking mechanism.
