Coastal Surveillance Radar System to work 24/7

Mauritius has established a Coastal Surveillance Radar System (CRSS) to strengthen its monitoring capacity to 24 hours. The system will be established in the territorial waters at Rodrigues, Agalega and St Brandon to fight piracy in the Indian Ocean.

On Tuesday Prime Minister Dr Navin Ramgoolam announced at the National Assembly that this equipment will be installed in a few days and in all likelihood, will be operational in August.

The CRSS will enable Mauritius to detect very distant targets. Another important development that the National Coast Guard expects during 2011 is the delivery of a modern coastal patrol boat (Offshore Patrol Vessel) at a cost of Rs 1.7 billion, financed by a credit line in India.

Contrary to other vessels owned by the NCG, the new patrol boat will be better equipped and will be able to navigate smoothly till the end of the Mauritian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

In addition, the state has already taken a series of measures to ensure the safety of cargo ships sailing in the area. In addition, a team of NCG and a unit the
Special Mobile Force (SMF) are based permanently at Agalega.

Their goal is to act as a ‘Quick Reaction Group’ in case of aggression, but also to maintain constant vigilance on the island and its surroundings.

To have better control over the movements of ships that cross our EEZ, Port Louis has been given an ‘Automated Identification System’ to detect vessels over 300 tonnes – that pass through the waters of Mauritius, besides the Monitoring System of the Albion Fisheries Research Centre can receive their positions every two hours.

As our maritime territory is quite large, Mauritius alone cannot deal with all acts of piracy in the sea.

The government understood this fact and sought the support of friendly countries like India, France and the United States which have military bases in the region to assist in its task.