Pune: Raigad police have launched a comprehensive audit to ramp up safety standards at more than 100 beach sites along the district’s 122-km Arabian Sea coastline, after eight students from Alandi drowned at Diveagar on Oct 1.Security branch personnel will assess local conditions, identify safety and security gaps and recommend corrective measures. The findings will be compiled as a comprehensive beach safety report. “We will submit it to govt and other departments to improve the safety of visitors,” Raigad SP Anchal Dalal told TOI.Drowning deaths involving tourists have become a recurrent cause for concern along Raigad’s coastline. Beaches such as Alibaug, Kashid, Nagaon, Diveagar and Harihareshwar are very popular but many lack dedicated lifeguards and basic safety infrastructure.Raigad has nine coastal police stations, each with personnel to patrol coastal areas. But police said the patrol teams cannot always reach a drowning spot quickly enough to save lives. “We therefore need dedicated teams at these places to assist visitors and create awareness,” a senior police officer said.Dalal said they were also studying Goa and Kerala, where gram panchayats play an important role in managing beach safety, including deployment of trained lifeguards. “This helps prevent or reduce tragedies. We have approached the (Raigad) district administration to help us,” she said.“Without lifeguards, you are asking for trouble,” Lt Col Austin Collaco (retd), GM (operations and training) of Drishti Marine Lifesavers in Goa, told TOI.Trained lifeguards can monitor around 150 metres of beach, issue safety warnings and immediately respond to distress calls. Lifeguards in Goa are equipped with water bikes, oxygen cylinders and basic medical kits, while watchtowers and CCTV systems help them monitor beaches.However, Collaco said even the most robust safety infrastructure can only do so much, particularly when visitors flout basic safety norms.Stating that such measures were the need of the hour, Prathamesh Chogale, owner of Darya Water Sports at Diveagar, said, “We have been pursuing this matter with the district administration for the past few years but in vain.”
