In coastal outreach, CISF holds 6,500km cyclothon

NEW DELHI: In an age when geopolitics makes securing its territorial waters and coastline paramount for any country, CISF has embarked upon a novel outreach to make the coastal population aware of the challenges to coastal security and encourage them to be the "eyes and ears" of the security forces safeguarding India's maritime interests. Only, rather than connecting with the coastal communities in uniform, CISF chose to go to them in 'civvies'; better still, don a cyclist's gear and pedal along 6,553 km of the country's coastline for 25 days to spread the message of 'secure coast, prosperous India.'On Monday, CISF announced conclusion of the 'Great Indian Coastal Cyclothon' with its 125 participating cyclists, including 14 women personnel, having traversed 11 states and Union Territories on the eastern and western coast to reach their final destination - the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. CISF said that its personnel had engaged with 58 coastal communities along the route, making the cyclothon the first-ever and one of the largest people's connect initiative by a security force. CISF currently guards 12 major Indian ports, a role which is set to expand in the days to come.A CISF spokesperson said over 1.3 lakh people participated in events and awareness campaigns held along the route, and their message reached 2.5 crore-strong audience.