New Delhi: The 18th National Maritime Search and Rescue Board (NMSARB) meeting organised by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) in New Delhi on December 18 discussed in detail policy issues, formulation of guidelines and procedures and assess the efficacy of National Search and Rescue Plan.
The apex-level meeting was chaired by Director General Indian Coast Guard and Chairman NMSARB K Natarajan, who highlighted various initiatives of ICG in coordination with other stakeholders to improve the search and rescue effectiveness within the 4.6 million sq km vast Indian Search and Rescue Region.
He spoke on the importance of three Maritime Rescue Coordination centers at Mumbai, Chennai and Andaman and Nicobar Islands established by ICG and voluntary ship reporting system INDSAR developed by the Coast Guard to divert the ship nearest to the site of incident for immediate Search and Rescue (SAR) assistance.
The Chairman advocated the need for collaborative approach with capacity building of stakeholders towards strengthening the maritime SAR architecture. He reiterated the need to focus on sustainable maritime safety in Area of Responsibility (AOR) and address regulations governing mandatory carriage of life saving safety equipment, seaworthiness of fishing vessels by fisher-folk as preventive mechanism, proper training and accounting of the crew onboard.
Apart from deliberations on various maritime safety issues and identifying areas of improvement of Search and Rescue services, the NMSAR Board recognises the SAR efforts of merchant mariners, government Owned Vessels and Fishermen every year. For 2018-19, MV Asia Emerald III was awarded the SAR Award for Merchant Vessel for saving six lives from a distressed fishing boat.
SAR Award for Fisherman was awarded to Anand A Ambhire from Maharashtra for saving 11 lives from a sinking fishing boat. SAR Award for Government-owned SAR Unit was awarded jointly to Indian Coast Guard Ships Sujoy and Vikram for saving 46 lives from ROSV Sagar Sampada off New Mangalore.
