Indian Coast Guard

India’s Navy guards the open ocean. But who patrols the muddy creek where a smuggler’s boat actually lands? This article covers the force built for exactly that gap.

Guarding The Middle Distance

Polity0141

31 JUL 1975

Rustamji Committee Reports

Recommends a Navy-patterned Coast Guard under the Ministry of Defence

1 FEB 1977

Interim Coast Guard Formed

Begins with 2 corvettes and 5 patrol boats transferred from the Navy

18 AUG 1978

Coast Guard Act Passed

Indian Coast Guard becomes an armed force of the Union

19 AUG 1978

Formally Inaugurated

PM Morarji Desai inaugurates ICG; V.A. Kamath is first DG

Same officer, two forces: K.F. Rustamji, BSF’s first Director General in 1965, also chaired the 1975 committee that recommended creating the Coast Guard, a decade later.

⬇ Download as image

📑 Contents

1Timeline
2Must Know
3Good to Know
4Test Yourself
5Great to Know
6Current Affairs

Timeline

On 31 July 1975, the Rustamji Committee recommended a Navy-patterned Coast Guard, placed under the Ministry of Defence.
On 1 February 1977, an interim Coast Guard began operating. It used two corvettes and five patrol boats, transferred from the Navy.
On 18 August 1978, the Coast Guard Act, 1978 came into force. The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) became a separate armed force of the Union.
On 19 August 1978, Prime Minister Morarji Desai formally inaugurated the ICG at Bombay. Vice Admiral V.A. Kamath became its first Director General.

Must Know

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is an armed force of the Union. It functions under the Ministry of Defence.
Its motto is “Vayam Rakshamah” (Sanskrit for “We Protect”).
Its core mandate covers maritime and coastal security, protecting India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), search and rescue, anti-smuggling patrols, and marine environment protection.
Unlike the BSF and other Central Armed Police Forces, the ICG is not a paramilitary CAPF. It is a distinct armed force, alongside the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Good to Know

The ICG is headed by the Director General (DG), working from Coast Guard Headquarters in New Delhi. Four Deputy Director Generals, ranked Inspector-General, assist the DG.
India’s coastline is split into five Coast Guard Regions: North-West (Gandhinagar), West (Mumbai), East (Chennai), North-East (Kolkata), and Andaman & Nicobar (Port Blair).
These regions divide further into 12 Coast Guard Districts. Each coastal state gets one, plus two for Andaman & Nicobar and one for Lakshadweep, at Kavaratti.
The ICG’s fleet includes offshore patrol vessels, fast patrol vessels, hovercraft, and aircraft. It has been expanding this fleet, including new indigenous vessel classes, under India’s defence self-reliance push.
ICG ranks are patterned on the Navy. A Commandant, for instance, holds a rank equivalent to a Navy Commander.

Test Yourself

Great to Know

India’s maritime security today runs on a three-tier split. State Marine Police cover the first 12 nautical miles. The ICG covers 12 to 200 nautical miles, India’s EEZ. The Navy covers everything beyond that, plus overall war-fighting at sea.
This layered system was strengthened after the 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacks, when terrorists infiltrated by sea. The Navy was named the overall authority for maritime security, with the ICG leading coastal security.
As of August 2026, the ICG’s 26th Director General is Paramesh Sivamani, in office since 15 October 2024.
Running a force between the Navy’s blue-water fleet and the states’ marine police reflects a real gap in coverage. Smuggling, poaching, and small-boat infiltration happen close to shore, terrain a warship is poorly suited to patrol.

Current Affairs

27 June 2026: The Indian Coast Guard commissioned ICGS Akshay, a new Fast Patrol Vessel, at Goa Shipyard Limited.
- Akshay means “Indestructible.” It can handle maritime law enforcement, coastal security, search and rescue, and marine environmental protection.
- It was commissioned by Parama Sen, Additional Secretary in the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance. The vessel is indigenously designed and built, reflecting the government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat push in domestic shipbuilding.
(Source: PIB).
On 18 June 2026, the ICG inducted its first indigenous Air Cushion Vehicle (ACV), hull number H-561, in Goa.
It was built by Chowgule & Company Private Limited, under a ₹387.44 crore contract for six ACVs, signed on 24 October 2024.
The hovercraft can cross water, mudflats, marshes, and sandbanks, terrain conventional patrol vessels can’t reach.
Its main roles are high-speed coastal patrol, reconnaissance, and interception, by day and night.
Five more ACVs from the same contract are still due, as India builds out this capability domestically.