Though expressing concern over a suspected ISI agent working in the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited undetected, the Navy today said photographs of a warship did not reveal everything.
"It is a matter of concern that someone enters the GRSE facility where he should not have entered and that too at an important place where ships are made," Commodore Ravi Ahluwalia, naval-officer-in-charge of West Bengal, told reporters here.
He said a system must be put in place to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in future.
Irshad Ansari, who was arrested by the Special Task Force of the Kolkata Police on Sunday, was a contractual labourer at the GRSE.
When asked to comment on reports that Ansari had shared photographs of warships being built in the shipyard to Pakistan, the naval officer said that such photographs were not sensitive data and they were already available on the Internet.
"The photos do not reveal all information about the equipment we have in place. Even GRSE doesn't know technical details of it. You just cannot understand everything by taking a photograph," Ahluwalia said.
On whether there has been procedural lapses at the GRSE in maintaining adequate security, he replied in the negative.
"But more needs to be done," he said, adding, the defence PSU had already placed a request for a CISF cover.
Ensuring police verification of employees is another measure being taken up, he said.
One of the leading shipyards in India, the GRSE is at present building 15 ships, including anti-submarine warfare corvettes and stealth frigates for the Indian Navy. The mini navratna company had also exported a warship last year to Mauritius.
To enhance surveillance capabilities once the Sagar Island deep water port is ready in the next few years, the Navy is also planning to start a full-fledged coast battery at the island, the official said.
He also spoke of the Navy's role in anti-piracy
operations and deployment of warships to patrol the Gulf of Eden and protect the marine jurisdiction from where the Somali pirates operate.
Asked about Navy's warhorse INS Viraat, to be decommissioned next year, and the government asking the nine maritime states - West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat - if they would be interested in taking the custody of the decommissioned ship, Adm Cheema said, "Viraat is an emotional issue for those who have served on board."
As per naval perspective, there is a need for three aircraft carriers, he added.
Talking about the India's bid to make another aircraft
carrier, Dhowan said it is still in study stage and no decision has been taken on what kind of propulsion or take off and landing system would be deployed.
He added that the force has taken up the issue of heavy weight torpedoes for the Scorpene submarines with the Defence Ministry.
Asked about the P75(I) project for new six conventional submarines, the Navy chief said the Defence Ministry will take a call on it besides the amphibious ship 9LPD0 project for which the survey of possible shipyards have been completed.
He said that talks for the multi-role helicopter deal with American firm Sikorsky was at an "advanced stage". He also reiterated the Navy's faith in the country's Light Combat Aircraft programme.
Replying to questions on the sea trials of India's first indigenous nuclear submarine, Arihant, Dhowan said it was progressing satisfactorily. He steered away from more questions on the subject.
Asked by a reporter whether the issue of radicalisation, abetted by religious intolerance, is fast becoming a national and global threat, Dhowan said, he can only speak for the Navy. He said that the Navy was secular.
"I would like to talk about how it is in the Navy. Every ship of the Indian Navy is a microcosm of India, where we have personnel from every single state representing, including every religion as well. Therefore Navy is totally secular in nature and it starts from from our individual and smallest unit. That trend and that feeling, and that spirit is maintained.
