Indian Coast Guard successfully conducts ‘Operation Sajag’ a Coastal Security Drill

New Delhi, 18 Sep 23:      ‘Operation Sajag’ a Coastal Security Drill was conducted by Indian Coast Guard on 18 Sep 23 along the Western Coast involving all stakeholders of the Coastal Security Construct.

The drill facilitates revalidation of the coastal security mechanism and bring awareness among the fishermen at sea. During the monthly drill“ OPSAJAG” extensive checking and verification of documents and crew passes of all fishing boats, barges and craft at sea is being undertaken. 

In order to strengthen the Coastal Security Construct a slew of measures have been incorporated ranging from Issuance of Biometric cards for the fishermen, colour coding of fishing boats as per each state, manning of fish landing centres and access control at entry/exit check points, coastal mapping, designating specific marine band frequency for security agencies, training of marine police personnel by Indian Coast Guard amongst others.

Biometric card readers have also been issued to security agencies. Besides monitoring of dhows, island security and community interaction programmes have been institutionalised under the Coastal Security Construct.

The Sajag drill is conducted every month for one day from dawn to dusk, wherein all stakeholders of the Coastal Security participate and the outcomes are further progressed for improvement in the Coastal security construct. The drill enables to verify implementation of various Coastal Security measures besides bringing out important lessons and highlight trends in coastal security.

Sajag for the month of September was conducted on 18 Sep 23. Approximately 118 small/bigger ships including those from stakeholders such as Customs, Marine Police, Ports, Indian Navy participated along the west coast.