INS Jatayu, which was commissioned on Minicoy Island on Wednesday, is the second naval base on the island chain and will be co-located with a joint airfield that is to come up in the future. The closest land to Minicoy is Thuraakunu Island in Maldives, which is located at a distance of about 100 km to the south, across the Vangaaru Channel.
The new base was inaugurated by Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar who said more assets will now be based on the island. Officials added that it will significantly augment India’s surveillance capabilities in the region.
“This milestone strengthens Indian Navy’s foothold in Lakshadweep while extending capacity building, operational reach and sustenance in the region. It will also augment connectivity with the mainland, focusing towards comprehensive development of the islands,” officials said. The navy has one more base on the island – INS Dweeprakshak at Kavaratti.
Besides the new naval base and a joint airfield that is in the works, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has major plans to upgrade its infrastructure in Lakshadweep in the coming months, including setting up of new jetties, radar stations and an air enclave.
Sources said that the ICG is already in discussion to set up an air enclave at a dual purpose airport that is being planned for Minicoy. Survey of land for the enclave is already under progress and the coast guard is seeking space for permanent deployment of its surveillance assets.At present, the ICG has three stations located at Kavaratti, Minicoy and Androth. It regularly undertakes surveillance of the Exclusive Economic Zone and has four interceptor boats for patrolling, besides air and ship operations from the mainland.The Coastal Security Network in the islands, sources said, is being expanded by the coast guard, which already has stations on six islands, including Minicoy. Equipped with day/night cameras, VHF and Infra- red Cameras, the stations feed real-time data to a control station. Sources said that three additional radar stations are being planned on the islands.
