The second indigeneously built pollution control vessel of the Indian Coast Guard, Samudra Paherdar was given a warm welcome by the Coast guard fraternity at Chennai Port today. The ship which was commissioned on 20th July this year will be based at Vishakapatnam. The ship is specially designed to mitigate any marine oil spill in our exclusive economic zone using state of the art pollution response equipment on board.

It is also fitted with modern integrated platform and power management system which makes it unique for manned machinery operations. The infra red system on board strengthens its surveillance capabilities at night. It can also operate helicopters from its deck besides undertaking multi farious tasks such as surveillance, interdiction, search and rescue and medical evaluation. The ship has an endurance of 6500 nautical miles and can stay at sea for 20 days.at night at sea

The India-Pakistan Joint Working Group Meeting for working out a mechanism for release of fishermen and their boats who cross maritime borders inadvertently was held in New Delhi today. The Indian delegation was led by Vice Admiral MP Muralidharan, Director General Indian Coast Guard while the Pakistan delegation was led by Rear Admiral Waseem Akram, Director General, Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA).

The group held preliminary discussions on the issue and recognised the need for addressing the humanitarian aspect of inadvertent crossing of maritime borders by legitimate fishermen. The discussions were fruitful in mutual exchange of ideas and deliberating way ahead in evolving a suitable mechanism for release of such fishermen and their boats. It was also acknowledged that focused approach and sustained efforts of the group needs to be continued.

The meeting was held in pursuance of the decision taken during the India-Pakistan Home Secretary Level Talks held on 28-29 March last year , where both sides agreed to task the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and PMSA to work on setting up a mechanism for release of fishermen and their boats who cross maritime borders inadvertently.