VASCO:  Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai, the flag officer commanding Goa naval area on Wednesday said Sagar Prahari Bal - the wing of the Indian Navy, entrusted with the responsibility of patrolling India’s shallow water, will be commissioned either by the end of December or in January next year.

Rear Admiral Pillai was addressing the media during the positioning ceremony of two new acquisitions of the Indian Navy - INS Kondul and INS Cankarso in the state. The ships were commissioned in August at Visakhapatnam.
The Sagar Prahari Bal comprises of 1,000 personnel and is equipped with 80 patrol boats. The force was constituted after the Mumbai terror attack and the main duty of the force is to guard against such terrorist attacks by patrolling the coastline and also to conduct search and rescue operations.
Further, the Rear Admiral said that since there are reports of bird hits at Dabolim airport, the Indian Navy will ensure that precautionary measures are taken in order to avoid more such accidents.
INS Kondul, commanded by Commander S R Patil and INS Cankarso commanded by Lieutenant Commander Arun Bahuguna, arrived in Goa on Wednesday. They are water jet propelled fast attack crafts indigenously designed and built at Kolkata.
The ships are fitted with modern state-of-art navigation and communication equipment and are capable of accomplishing their designed roles of rapid interception, anti poaching, anti piracy and local naval defence.
It is foreseen that the arrival of these two ships will increase the operational capabilities of Goa naval area which has been operating with only one ship, INS Bitra, for the past two years.