Western Naval Command wants MbPT to allot land to Navy

Luthra told the media here on Friday that the Navy aircraft enclave with a hangar for its planes will soon be operational at the Mumbai Airport. “This will be used during emergency situations,” he said.

Asked if there has been a stepping up of operations by Chinese vessels in Indian waters and if they pose a potential threat, Luthra said, “There has been an increase in presence and deployment of China’s Navy ships and submarines in our area of interest. These deployments are closely monitored by the Indian Navy and we also undertake our deployment in such a manner that our interest and our security our taken care of.”

On the recommendations of former Army vice-chief General Philip Campose who was appointed by the government to look at security of military installations after the Pathankot air base attack, Luthra said that a number of recommendations have been made and are at various stages of implementation including conduct of security audits. “We have conducted security audits to observe the shortcomings. We are working on improving physical security of all our bases not just in Maharashtra but across the western command. Some of these assets exists in densely populated areas, some of them are in areas of heavy vegetation, so smart fencing is not possible everywhere. At many places we have installed new technological methods, increased patrolling and surveillance. We have given attention on both access control mechanism and in case of breach, the response mechanism,” Luthra said.

Regarding the decommissioning date of aircraft carrier-INS Viraat, Luthra said, “Viraat has completed her refit and dry docking which are required before decommissioning. We are in the process of finalising the date for decommissioning. The proposed dates are now under examination in New Delhi,”

He said that recent infrastructure announcements made by the Maharashtra Government do not pose any security threat and that the Navy does not have any objections to these projects. “These projects don’t interfere in our day to day activities. Many of these projects are development oriented and therefore all developmental oriented projects are supported by us. Wherever we feel our security or operations are affected we take the issue with the concerned authorities,” he said.

“We recently commissioned INS Chennai, the third ship of the Project 15A (Kolkata class). INS Visakhapatnam and Mormugao of Project 15 Bravo is also being launched. Construction of six Scorpene submarines is progressing at the Mazagaon Docks and the first, INS Kalvari, is scheduled to be commissioned shortly.”

The Western Naval Command also conducted an operational exercise in November called Paschim Lehar where large number of ships, submarines and aircraft participated. “The exercise was to check and improve our operational readiness including mobilisation and synchronisation,” he said.

To increase interaction with the youth, the Navy organised a half marathon for the first time. “The half marathon conducted by the Navy in Mumbai is a first and received an overwhelming response and was a big success. It enabled us to improve our connect with the population, particularly the youth.”