Mumbai police to hire fishing trawlers to patrol the coasts

With several patrol boats of the state coastal police unavailable or in bad shape, the state home department has permitted various districts and the commissionerate to hire fishing trawlers for patrolling

Mumbai: As Mumbai observes the fourteenth anniversary of the 26/11 terror attack, the vulnerability of Maharashtra’s coastal police has once again been laid bare. With several patrol boats of the state coastal police unavailable or in bad shape, the state home department has permitted various districts and the commissionerate to hire fishing trawlers for patrolling.

Mumbai police to hire fishing trawlers to patrol the coasts

The order to hire trawlers was sent by the state home department to police headquarters two weeks ago. “The government has permitted us to hire eight fishing trawlers,” confirmed deputy commissioner of police (ports) Sanjay Latkar. “We are hoping we will get eight more so that our patrolling can be multiplied.”

Latkar said that the Mumbai police had 24 patrol boats but of these seven were damaged, one was beyond repair and four were in routine maintenance, hence the need for trawlers. “Since the police expressed helplessness, we had to allow the hiring of trawlers for patrolling,” said a home department official.

A meeting on this took place on Tuesday and the process of hiring trawlers has begun. As against the Mumbai police’s eight, Palghar will get one trawler, for which the tender has been issued, said Palghar police superintendent Balasaheb Patil.

The utility of fishing trawlers in activities like patrolling is severely limited on account of their slow speed. According to police officials, trawlers travel at a speed of five knots per hour while police patrol boats can travel at 25 to 45 knots. “The slow speed of a fishing trawler imposes many limitations on the patrolling force,” explained a police officer. “For instance, tasks like attending to drowning calls or the interception of boats become more difficult. The latter, especially, is vital as the vessels engaged in likely suspicious activities could be a security threat.”

The coastal police are supposed to patrol from the shores to five nautical miles while the Coast Guard patrols from five nautical miles to 12 nautical miles. Thereafter, the Indian navy keeps a vigil on the seas. The naval dockyard and the western naval command are located in Mumbai, and these are protected by the navy’s Fast Attack Crafts. For any likely emergencies at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, there are two hovercrafts from Belapur belonging to the Coast Guard.

In 2020 and early 2021, several fishing boats were hired for coastal policing, which was stopped by the then home secretary, S J Kunte. An investigation revealed that parts of the patrol boats of the Mumbai and Navi Mumbai police had been stolen by the maintenance agency. Additional director-general of police Prabhat Kumar of the Anti-Corruption Bureau had investigated the episode and sent a report to the state home department. A First Information Report was registered in Pune and later transferred to Mumbai. The case is being probed by the Economic Offences Wing, which has not made much headway.