Southern States
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Kerala
Coast Guard's new hovercraft calls at Kochi
By Our Staff Reporter
KOCHI, JAN. 24. To add force to its patrol power in the changed circumstances, the Coast Guard has acquired six hovercraft. Of these, five have already been deployed while the sixth is in the works.
The fifth to join the Guard, H-185, which had been commissioned last month, arrived at Kochi on Thursday on its way to Okha in Gujarat from Haldia in West Bengal. Coast Guard is the only force to be equipped with such an amphibious vehicle (a hovercraft is a vehicle that is capable of moving over land or water while supported on a cushion of air made by jet engines).
H-185 and its four companions are capable of patrolling shallow waters, marshy land, backwaters and beach. With a top speed of 92 km per hour, it would help the Guard to catch smugglers, militants, intruders and drug runners and intercept escaping speed boats and other modern vessels.
The commandant of the Kerala-and-Lakshadweep district of Coast Guard, Gurupdesh Singh, told a visiting team of presspersons that the hovercraft would be of great use for search and rescue operations in the sea. It would be a force multiplier to the Coast Guard and it would be given on lend to the Navy when required. In the fight against militancy, it could track down LTTE cadre escaping to Indian territory. The hovercraft was armed with a 12.7 mm automatic machine gun with a range of fire of six km. It could fire 100 rounds a minute.
None of the hovercraft would be based in Kochi as the craft was not required to patrol the lean Kerala coastline, Commander Singh said. Besides, the Kerala-Lakhshadweep district possessed aircraft for faster patrol.
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