'Incidents like Pavit won't happen again

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MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The Indian Navy has learnt its lessons and there shall be no Pavit-like episodes again, assured Admiral Nirmal Kumar Verma, chief of naval staff, at the commissioning ceremony of INS Satpura on Saturday morning.

However, officers said India's coastal security will remain vulnerable till the stepped-up physical patrolling by Navy and Coast Guard is backed by "actionable intelligence", and round-the-clock dynamic electronic surveillance.

Admiral Verma agreed that the Pavit incident was an 'aberration'. He added that the inquiry initiated by the Navy will try to ascertain the lapses on part of the marine security forces.


"We will find out the route that Pavit followed while drifting in the sea and the patrolling vessels that it managed to bypass. We also need to check if the existing systems to track targets or suspicious ships failed in this case," he said. However, the naval chief said that since the weather during the Pavit incident was not favourable, aerial surveillance was not possible.

Meanwhile, officials from the directorate general of shipping have written to the insurance company of M T Pavit — Al Buhaira National Insurance company—to conduct a financial probe . Officials have asked the company to ascertain if the owners of the tanker have committed fraud and if they have claimed insurance thinking if the vessel had sunk.

At the Satpura unveiling, officials also announced that the Nilgiri class frigate INS Vindhyagiri, which submerged near the city following a collision with merchant vessel Nord Lake on January 30, 2011, has been successfully refloated, though the internal naval inquiry in the case is not yet over. Verma applauded the co-ordination efforts by the Navy and other state and central agencies following the 26/11 attacks. About the commissioning of the Shivalik Class frigate INS Satpura, Admiral Verma said, "With this landmark step, we are a step closer towards realization of our dream of being self-sufficient in warship production."