⇒Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar inaugurated the 8th edition of two-day National Level Pollution Response Exercise, ‘NATPOLREX-VIII’ on April 19, 2022.
- It was conducted by Indian Coast Guard (ICG) off Mormugao harbour, Goa.
Participants:
The event was attended by more than 85 participants from 50 agencies, including 29 observers from 22 friendly foreign countries & International Organisations and two Coast Guard ships from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Objective:
The objective of NATPOLREX-VIII is to enhance the preparedness and response capability of all the stakeholders in combating marine spills.
- It aims at validating the procedures and guidelines as contained in the National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOSDCP) at the national and regional levels under the aegis of SACEP MoU to which India is a member state.
» During this exercise, 13 ships and 10 aircraft of ICG, one C-131 aircraft of Indian Air Force, two ships from SACEP member states – Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and one Offshore Supply Vessel (OSV) of ONGC, assets of Shipping Corporation of India and tugs from Mormugao Port Trust are included.
- They demonstrated containment cum marine spill recovery by side sweeping arms, deployment of booms and skimmers, streaming of single ship operated containment cum recovery system, firefighting drill, rescue operation, and demonstration of surface and air oil spill dispersant systems.
» Besides NATPOLREX, ICG concurrently conducted a capacity building professional training course in Marine Oil Response and Preparedness for 45 international participants from 18 countries including member states from Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) at Chennai from April 18-29, 2022.