Singh said India has intensified patrolling of the seas after the recent attacks on merchant navy ships.
Indian Navy's mission deployed platforms responded swiftly to a maritime incident in the Arabian Sea involving the hijacking on board a Liberia-flagged bulk carrier, a Navy spokesperson said.
Twenty five Indian crew members and their vessel were rescued from pirates in the Gulf of Aden by a European warship operating there last week. The EUNAVFOR warship FGS Berlin had launched a rescue mission after receiving a distress call from an Indian flagged merchant vessel on February 28 by sending a chopper there.
A Special Investigation Team of the Kerala Police on Saturday began the search and ballistic examination of weapons on board oil tanker Enrica Lexie in the presence of Italian experts who arrived in Kochi on Saturday morning from Rome. Police will seize and seal the fire arms, suspected to have been used by the two arrested Italian naval guards Latore Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone, in the killing of two Indian fishermen off Kollam coast on February 15.
The government has identified 50 public-private partnership (PPP) projects worth over Rs 60,000 crore, significantly surpassing the original targets of the National Monetisation Pipeline, said Ports, Shipping, and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at the Business Standard Infrastructure Summit on Thursday.
The Indian Navy has deployed task groups comprising frontline destroyers and frigates in the central and north Arabian Sea and augmented its force levels in the region to undertake maritime security operations in view of recent attacks on commercial vessels in key shipping lanes.
In the last few weeks, the Indian Navy has extended assistance to a number of merchant vessels in the Western Indian Ocean following attacks on them.
The navy got a request at 7 am for immediate evacuation of those on board the ship which was listing precariously, he said.
The Indian Navy's 'mission deployed' guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam responded to the attack within an hour of receiving a distress call from the vessel Genco Picardy, they said.
In its search to find the 'mother ship' of the terrorists who have attacked Mumbai, India on Thursday apprehended two Pakistani merchant vessels off the coast of Gujarat in a joint operation carried out by the Navy, Coast Guard and the water wing of the Border Security Force."We have apprehended two cargo ships in a joint operation near the Gujarat coast while they were sailing to Karachi. They are suspected to be the ships that ferried the terrorists near to Mumbai coast,"
Indian Navy on Wednesday said its ships and aircraft remain 'mission deployed' for maintaining enhanced surveillance and undertaking maritime security operations.
Days after the brush off incident between their warships in the Gulf of Aden, Indian Navy on Friday said Pakistani ship PNS Babur had damaged a part of INS Godavari by moving too close to it.
'Due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, a faction operating in the Red Sea -- which is a typically safe area - has been firing projectiles arbitrarily.' 'Additionally, there have been two incidents involving Somali pirates, and one vessel has been hijacked.'
Indian Navy's elite marine commandos on Friday rescued 21 crew members including 15 Indians from a bulk carrier in the North Arabian Sea and sanitised it in a swift operation while responding to an attempted hijacking of the Liberian-flagged vessel by around five-six armed personnel.
The Indian Navy continues to monitor the situation very closely with all stakeholders and remains committed to ensuring the safety of merchant shipping in the region, it said in a statement.
In a calibrated operation, the Indian Navy on Saturday 'coerced' 35 Pirates onboard a merchant ship around 1,400 nautical miles from the Indian coast to surrender and ensured the safe evacuation of 17 crew members without any injury, officials said.
Thirteen Indians are among the 16-member crew of a Comoros-flagged oil tanker that went missing after it capsized off the coast of Oman, the country's maritime authority said.
An Indian-flagged crude oil tanker is among two vessels that came under drone attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Southern Red Sea, the United States Central Command has said.
The navy received information about the vessel, responded to the distress call and the Pakistan Maritime Information Centre requested a nearby merchant ship "MT KRUIBEKE" to provide necessary assistance to the stranded crew of the Indian vessel.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on the six persons sentenced to 20-year imprisonment, out of the eight crew members who were on board the merchant vessel 'Henry'.
The Navy deployed a warship, maritime patrol aircraft P-8I, helicopters and and MQ9B Predator drones to assist the vessel, MV Lila Norfolk, after it sent a message on the UK Maritime Trade Operations portal, saying unknown armed personnel had boarded it on Thursday evening.
A Torpedo Recovery Vessel of the Indian Navy sunk off the Visakhapatnam coast on Thursday during a naval exercise, killing one sailor while four others went missing.
'Given that the situation is quickly escalating, such attacks will affect the flow of crude in the short term from West Asia' Subhayan Chakraborty and Dhruvaksh Saha report.
US central command said that several US personnel are undergoing evaluation for "traumatic brain injuries" and at least one Iraqi service member was wounded in the attack.
The Navy on Thursday pulled out its warship from escorting MV Suez, released by pirates, towards Salalah port in Oman after the Egyptian vessel, under the command of a Pakistani national, did not respond to its calls.
Saturday's drone attack on MV Chem Pluto came amid increasing concerns over various commercial vessels being targeted reportedly by Iran-backed Houthi militants in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The Indian naval ship, INS Vindhyagiri, that caught fire after collision with a foreign merchant vessel at the Mumbai harbour sunk on Monday.
A week after it guarded 13 merchant vessels from piracy attack, an Indian warship has once again warded off an attempt by sea brigands on nine cargo ships including an Indian vessel off the Yemeni coast in Gulf of Aden.
In a year bookended by intractable conflicts and geopolitical fragmentation, India focused on ramping up military prowess by broadly firming up defence procurement worth Rs 4.22 lakh crore even as Indian and Chinese militaries completed pulling back their troops from border face-off points in eastern Ladakh.
The Indian Coast Guard has seized 1,500 kg of heroin.
The attack on the Norwegian-owned merchant vessel -- M V Maud, flying the Liberian flag -- took place about 225 nautical miles east of Aden around 1300 hours on Thursday, the sources said.
An Indian warship has warded off another attack by pirates on merchant vessels carrying 40 Indians among its crew in the south of Yemen, the Navy said on Thursday.INS Delhi, a guided missile destroyer, was escorting six merchant vessels with 147 crew members, including 40 Indians on board, on Wednesday when a dhow was spotted approaching the formation at a high speed. The formation escorted by INS Delhi was sailing along the International Recommended Transit Corridor.
Nearly 100 containers that fell into the sea following the collision between two merchant vessels off the Mumbai coast are still missing and two of them are carrying hazardous chemicals. "The salvage operation is underway. Nearly 100 out of the total 250 containers are yet to be traced from the waters," said Rahul Asthana, chairman of Mumbai Port Trust. Two of the missing containers carry hazardous chemicals and efforts are on to locate and retrieve them, he said.
"The Coast Guard on Wednesday used Chetak helicopters for the rescue mission and airlifted 11 crew members from the merchant vessel Arkadia Progress," Commandant N Bakshi told PTI on phone from Porbandar on Wednesday.
An Indian Navy ship has thwarted a pirate attack on a merchant vessel with 10 Indian crew members in the Gulf of Aden.
Notwithstanding the strain in ties, the navies of India and China carried out a well coordinated operation to rescue a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden which was hijacked by Somali pirates on Saturday night.
The southern deep-sea port of Hambantota is considered strategically important for its location.
The two anti-submarine warfare shallow watercraft built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited were launched by Neeta Chaudhari, wife of Chief of Air Staff of Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari.
The $22.8 billion CK Hutchison ports deal intensifies geopolitical tensions between the US and China. Chinese media has already called it 'a betrayal of all Chinese people'. Shyam G Menon explains how the proposed sale will reshapes global trade infrastructure.
Four navy personnel, including an officer, remained missing on Friday after a vessel sank off the Vishakhapatnam coast on Thursday night and a full scale search is underway to trace them besides.
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