TN police team completes longest sailing expedition

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu police becomes the first force in the world to receive official recognition the Yachting association of India and World book of records for successfully completing the longest sailing expedition by a civilian police force (540 nautical miles). Director General of Police (DGP), C Sylendra Babu on Friday felicitated the team which took part in the expedition from Chennai to Mandapam and back, covering in three J80 class sail boats.

The expedition started on July 9 and the team returned in July 17.

As many as 24 police personnel from Coastal Security Group (CSG) were part of the expedition, which was done in co-ordination with Royal Madras Yacht Club (RMYC).

“The objective of the expedition is to have safe and secure sea in the eastern Coast of Tamil Nadu, bring awareness among the fishing community-the ‘eyes and ears’ in Coastal Security mechanism and to collect intelligence regarding discreet landing points if any, ” an official release stated.

Police said that the sailing crew interacted with fishermen community and made them aware about the coastal security mechanism and also made them aware about the CSG Toll free number 1093 to share any form of information about any suspicious activity happening in and around the coastline.

An official release said that 41 calls were received through the 1093 toll free number so far this year and CSG have rescued 20 fishermen and five boats in distress by deploying the assets and in coordination with MRCC (maritime rescue coordination centre) and local fisheries authorities.

In the past 11 months, CSG have also seized 10645 kgs turmeric Spikes, 636.215 kgs Ganja, 27860 kgs Ration rice, 3225 ltrs ration kerosene, 4568 kgs Sea cucumbers, 260 kgs Cardamom, 780 kgs. beedi Leaves which were meant for smuggling.