New Delhi, Mar 17 (PTI) Over 11,700 lives have been rescued at sea by the Indian Coast Guard since its inception, while more than 4,000 search and rescue missions were undertaken by it during this period, according to a report by a parliamentary panel on defence.

The Standing Committee on Defence, chaired by BJP MP Radha Mohan Singh, presented its report in Parliament on Monday.

The Ministry of Defence, in a presentation, informed the Committee of various operational activities undertaken by the ICG since its inception, it said.

The report contains a tabulated data about various operations conducted by the Coast Guard in this period, according to which the number of lives rescued at sea by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) stands at 11,730.

The number of medical evacuation conducted stands at 482 while 4,101 missions were undertaken for SAR (search and rescue) in this period, as per the data.

It also shared figures for operation done as part of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

The number of coastal security operations by the ICG stood at 593 while the value of contraband seized was Rs 52,296.54 crore, as per the data.

The Committee said it is given to understand that the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) was constituted under the Coast Guard Act, 1978, as an Armed Force of the Union for ensuring the security of the maritime zones of India with a view to protect the maritime and other national interests in such zones and for matters connected therewith.

"The mandate given to ICG under the Coast Guard Act, 1978, and other national legislations can broadly be classified under four pillars, namely maritime search & rescue (SAR), maritime law enforcement (MLE), marine environment protection (MEP) and maritime & coastal security. The mission of ICG is to protect the maritime and other national interest of India which includes fulfillment of a wide array of charter of duties," it said.

The Committee said it further enquired about significant jump i.e. 42.86 per cent in capital budget of the Coast Guard in BE 2025-26 in comparison to BE 2024-25.

In this regard, the defence secretary has submitted: "The Coast Guard's Capital Budget is essentially growing because after the Mumbai attack, we have tried to systematically strengthen our maritime security." "And in the immediate future, we have a fairly large-scale acquisition plan for the Coast Guard comprising of two Pollution Control Vehicles, eight Fast Patrol Vessels, 12 New Generation OPVs, six Air Cushion Vehicles -- which are hovercrafts, 22 interceptor boats, and helicopters etc. I mean there is a good reason why Coast Guard Budget is going up and it needs to go up given the very long coastline that India has," the defence secretary told the panel. PTI KND AS AS

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