Orissa tightens security in port, along coastline

Bhubaneswar, Jan 14 (IANS) Orissa has tightened security in one of its major ports and along its Bay of Bengal coast in view of the attacks on Mumbai by terrorists who sneaked in from the sea, officials said Wednesday.

Authorities this week have installed at least 20 close circuit television cameras (CCTV) in the Paradip port area in Jagatsinghpur district, some 100 km from here, at a cost of Rs.

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40 million.

'Two of the cameras were installed at the main entrance to the port town and near the main administrative building of the Paradip port trust,' Captain Gouri Prasad Biswal, deputy conservator of the Paradip Port Trust, told IANS.

'Others were installed at various important locations of the port,' he said, adding that the measures have been taken in view of the Nov 26 terror attacks in Mumbai.

The Indian Coast Guard has also beefed up security measures along the 480 km coastline of the state by regular patrolling as well as deployment of additional ships and aircraft for better surveillance, state Home Secretary A.P. Padhi said.

One Indian Coast Guard ship is deployed at all times off the coast of Orissa and West Bengal to monitor maritime activity, he added.

'We have also decided to ask the owners of all fishing boats to install global positioning system (GPS) sets in their vessels. A GPS set costs around Rs.4,000-5,000. The price of a GPS set developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation is Rs.500 less,' Padhi said.

An estimated 9,200 fishing trawlers and boats are operating along the state coast and they can be brought under surveillance with the devices, he added.

The central government has sanctioned money to set up at least five marine police stations in the state and out of them three are expected to be functional in the next two months, Padhi said.