New Delhi: Government has given approval for setting up a training academy for officers and jawans of the Indian Coast Guard at Kannur in Kerala.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, sources said here on Wednesday.
The academy expected to be set up at a cost of over Rs 500 crore will have the capacity to train 300 officers and 800 jawans along with cadets from friendly foreign countries such as Sri Lanka and Maldives, they said.
The project is expected to be completed by 2015 and already the Kerala government has acquired land for it.
Sources said the academy will provide coastal security training to various other agencies including the BSF, CISF, CRPF and some state police organisations.
The training of Coast Guard officers and jawans was not taking place in a centralised manner and they were training at multiple facilities.
With the new academy, the officers and jawans will be provided Coast Guard-oriented training for tasks such as search and rescue, anti-piracy operations and pollution control under one facility.
However, the initial training of the cadets will continue to be held at the Naval Academy, they said.
The need for a coastal security academy was further stressed post-26/11 attacks on Mumbai after which Government has taken several steps to strengthen the coastal security mechanisms.
PTI
