Vice Admiral Anil Chopra Relinquishes Command of the Indian Coast Guard

At an impressive ceremony held at the Coast Guard Headquarters here today, Vice Admiral Anil Chopra handed over charge as the Director General Indian Coast Guard, after a successful tenure of 35 months. He will take over as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command at Vishakhapatnam on Monday, Oct 31, 2011. Vice Admiral Chopra took over the reins of the Indian Coast Guard in the immediate aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. The incident led to circumstances which necessitated a much larger mandate for the Coast Guard. To fulfill the challenges posed, the Coast Guard needed to impart renewed thrust on capacity-building with associated augmentation of infrastructure and manpower, in addition to an enhanced operational tempo. The Sevice has been transformed into a far more capable and better equipped Coast Guard, that is ready for all future threats. With fructification of various acquisition proposals that have been concluded in the last three years, the service would have a force-level of 150 ships and 100 aircraft, in addition to 42 Stations, and 15 Air Units by the year 2018. Further, with the current pace of recruitment, the total personnel with the Service is likely to reach 20,000 by the end of this decade. Two long-cherished objectives of the Coast Guard namely, the Coastal Surveillance Network (CSN), and the establishment of a Coast Guard Academy have also fructified during Vice Admiral Chopra’s tenure. After three years of dealing with the trials and tribulations of coastal and offshore security, pirates and poachers, Vice Admiral Chopra now ‘Looks East’, to confront the many challenges on India’s Eastern Seaboard.